The Wolf and The Lion
by Todpirscher
Summary: Squall is having a hard time dealing with Kairi and Riku and Sora's affection for one another. But when the mysterious Cloud Strife appears, his world really gets turned upside down. SquallLeonxCloud, a bit of SxR
1. Chapter 1

So, this is my first real fic. Be nice. It's a Cloud x Squall/Leon fic. With a bit of Sora x Riku, and lots of Kairi bashing. Not because I exactly like Sora x Riku, but because Kairi is an annoying little bitch. Read and review, read and don't review, do some constructive criticism... However, read and flame and you shall pay. Be warned O Flametongues. For my tongue is much sharper than any of yours.

Now. Enjoy!

"Leeeeeoooooooooon! Ohhhh, Leeeeeeeoooooooooon!" Damn it, the annoying little red head had found her way into one of his refuges away from everyone else. "Leon, my love, where arrrrrrrrreeeeeeeee you?" Okay, so maybe not from society but mostly to escape the little red's infatuation with him.

I ducked behind one of the many crates in the storage warehouse that I was currently hiding in, in an attempt to buy some time and figure out 1) How to get away from Kairi, and 2) Find out who had betrayed my whereabouts. Probably Yuffie. She was still calling out to me as I slunk across the catwalk suspended about thirty feet in the air over the other crates below. Looking down through the small holes in the catwalk, I saw her wandering around between the crates searching for me. Disgust colored my face, and I looked forward to the end of the catwalk: freedom.

It led directly to the outside via a conveyor belt that brought supplies up to said catwalk. Quickening my pace slightly, I heard her huffily say, "Leon, if you don't come out I'll…" The stupid red-head seemed at a loss as to what punishment she would use against me. "I'll…I'll tell Yuffie you like her." I almost laughed out loud for the hilarity of it. Me, like Yuffie? About as unlikely as me being gay.

The conveyor belt had been lowered a bit for whatever reason, but the jump was nothing for me. I breathed a sigh of relief as I reached the end of the belt and looked around at the open blue sky, and the big brown industrial buildings surrounding me. I worked with metal, so I guess that'd make me a metal smith. As I was about to head back to the main building, someone jumped onto my back and wrapped their arms around my neck. I was going to beat the shit out of whoever it was until, "Ohhhhh Leeeon, I found you!" The high pitched, giddy voice in my ear was very painful, like someone sticking an ice pick into it. The thought of beating the shit of Kairi was quite appealing but… Well, for obvious reasons I couldn't do it.

The stupid red head tightened her arms around my neck squealing delightedly as I continued to walk towards the main building as if nothing were happening. However, when she began to squeeze so hard that I couldn't breathe, I reached up, pried her arms off from around my neck, and held her up next to me. She dangled and squirmed like a fish caught on a line, giggling. "You were choking me." And with that, I dropped her to the ground and kept walking.

When I finally made it safely to the main building without the little brat attacking me, I stepped into a room brighter than the outdoors. I don't mean light wise, I mean decoration wise. Yuffie and I worked together and, unfortunately had to share an office which she insisted on decorating. Bright colors and ninja things adorned every service, but thankfully she had not brought up making anything pink. I would have drawn the line there. But right now, I needed to find Yuffie and figure out if she had told Kairi where I was.

Skulking around the building, I quickly found her out in the front making a mess of the paper work which I had so painstakingly organized. "Yuffie," I said darkly. Yuffie looked up at me with a huge grin and before I could continue began to babble.

"Oh Squall," the use of my old name made me twitch but her mouth was running a mile a minute. Much like Kairi's did sometimes… "We've been doing so much good work lately, Cid decided to let us – you and me – have the next two weeks off. Isn't that wonderful Squall?"

Not really, I liked working, but didn't say so much to Yuffie. "One, stop calling me…that name. It's Leon now." Yuffie made a sad face at me, but I continued. "And two, why did you tell Kairi where I was?"

Yuffie brightened up. "Oh, but I didn't. It was Sora. I saw him a little while ago, he asked me where you were. I told him and then asked why and he said to get rid of Kairi. Sora said that he has no interest in her, and that he's in love with Riku." Yuffie got a bit dreamy on me then, and I gave her a disgusted look. Not only was Sora a fag for dumping Kairi on me, but he was also a real fag for loving Riku. Which made his fagness all the worse. And it made Kairi the little slut. Attacking Sora and me at the same time. I sighed and looked away from Yuffie's face, trying to figure out what I was going to do with two weeks off. "OH!" Yuffie's exclamation brought mye eyes back to er, and she stood up abruptly. "There's a new guy coming later. He's a friend of Cid's. Maybe you heard of him Cloud…um…Cloud Strife I think it is."

A friend of Cid? So, maybe things wouldn't be so bad. Cid was a great guy, so why wouldn't his friends be some fun too? Not in a gay way. Because as I've already established, I'm not gay. Maybe we could train together… My mind raced away with me and face got appreciatively lighter as Yuffie seemed to have noticed for she pounced on me with a hug. "Oh Squall, you'll have fun! I just know it!" Before I could retaliate on her, she ran off into the back room and slammed the door closed.

But just before I heard the door close, I heard a terrible voice. "Yuffie! I've lost Leon! Where is he?" Not waiting for the terrible conversation I bolted from the building and headed for home faster than usual.

(' ') ( ) ( ; ;) Q(' 'Q) (' ') (0 0) ( ) Dances with Kirby

Once back home, I didn't really know what to do with myself. Cid would still be back at the building, as would Yuffie and, hopefully, Kairi. Sora and Riku…well, I'm not sure I really wanted to know where they were and what they were doing. And Riku used to be such a good sparing partner… Much better than Sora. He must have turned Riku over to the dark side… My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. "No one's home," I shouted, reclining back on my bed with my hands behind the head, legs propped up on the end rest of the bed.

"Leon, open up the damn door before I break it down!" Cid roared at me from behind the door and I contemplated seeing whether or not the old man really could knock down the door. Then again, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to pay for a new door. And it would be so easy for Kairi to get into my room…

"Alright, alright old man, I'm coming." Cid growled at me from behind the door that he was not old, merely older than the rest of us. Smirking slightly, I opened the door and Cid swaggered in, cocky as ever, chewing on the straw in his mouth.

"Make tea, or coffee or something," Cid demanded, and only offered, "Please," in a sarcastic tone after I gave him a scathing look. He seated himself at the little round table in my as if it were his room as I wandered into the kitchen to get some tea on the stove. "Ya heard that my friend, Cloud is comin', from Yuffie righ'?" He didn't give me time to reply though, merely continued talking. "He's a good friend of mine. An' old friend of mine." Cid paused before saying, "We've been through a lot together, and he's come on some hard times recently. Figured I'd pull him out of slump like he did for me." As I walked back into the room with a poor excuse for tea, Cid looked as if he was remembering some times long ago. Once he realized I was there though, he focused back on the now.

Accepting the tea, he drank it without complaint. It was probably more than he expected of me; I wasn't much of a homemaker. "Anyway," he began again, "You're both excellent swordsmen, and you should both spend some time together. Get to know each other, spar and whatnot." He waved a hand in the air as if it was unimportant what we did as long as we did something. I shrugged and nodded my head, drinking my own tea. Which I almost then spit out. Bleh, how did the old man drink this? "So let's getta move on! Cloud should be here any moment. He'll be living a few rooms down from you for now." I again nodded as Cid replaced his empty cup to the table and swaggered out the door with me in tow.

End 1

So, how was it? Mleh, I think too much detail, eh? lol. Constructive criticism welcomed. Have fun children!


	2. Chapter 2

Second chapter! I'm on a roll! I was going to start writing in third person, since I wasn't too sure if I liked my first person, but people like it, so I'll leave it that way. My Dances with Kirby didn't work though…some of their hands didn't come out. POV changes a bit, divided bylines with POV above them. So no one gets confused. Ummm… not much else to say. So, I'll just let you all read. xD

So this is where Cid lived? As I entered the town I looked for one of the landmarks or street names that Cid had given to me for directions. But, Cid wasn't very good at directions as I had quickly found out. I scratched my chin with a black gloved hand when up ahead I saw a gathering of people. And then there was Cid in among the rest of them. Getting closer, I scanned over the whole group. Two teenage looking boys were standing on the edge of the group holding hands. Interesting. Yuffie was standing next to them, her over-sized Ninja star in her hand over her shoulder, a big grin plastered on her face. A childish blond boy stood next to Yuffie looking a bit bored, and next to him was Cid.

But the next man caught my eye, picky as I might be. Black leather pants an jacket, with a white t-shirt, belts and some kind of chain around his neck. I studied the scar on his face for a moment, before my eyes narrowed. Some skinny little red head had just jumped around his neck, chortling gleefully. Damn it.

At that moment Cid roared, "Cloud! Great to see you!" He pushed between the blond boy and the hottie with the red head hanging all over him to get to me. He grasped my forearm, and I his as he grinned at me with the straw between his teeth. I grinned back slightly at him. I had missed the old, crazy as he could be at times. "You look different," he said after a moment.

And at this I almost laughed, but didn't as we released our arms. "I've got a lot to tell." He nodded, and I continued. "But first, introduce me to everyone?"

Cid looked offended that I thought he could have possibly forgotten to introduce all the other people who were standing behind him not quite sure what they should be doing. Of course not, he would never. "Well now," Cid spun around his hands arrogantly placed on his hips, elbows bowed out and chest thrown forward as if he were inspecting a platoon of soldiers. "That there, is Riku and Sora. The runty one is Sora." At hearing their names that two boys dropped one another's hands. I smirked, thinking how pathetic it was that they couldn't even deal with their own sexuality.

"I am not a runt!" The one who was Sora exclaimed.

Cid grunted in reply, and I ignored him as well. He was a bit runty looking. "You know Yuffie already…" Yuffie ran up to me and hugged me tightly while I just stood there. I wasn't really into hugging girls.

"Cloud! It's good to see you! It's been ages. We must go shopping!" Shopping with Yuffie was always fun. I smiled a bit and nodded, glancing over at the leather clad man. He was holding the red head out at a distance and dropped her on the floor. She sat there pouting while he crossed his arms over his chest and ignored her. Perhaps there was some hope to be kindled with this one.

"That there is Tidus." At the sound of his name, the blond boy attempted to copy Cid's arrogant posture but didn't quite achieve the same air of arrogance that Cid had mastered so easily. I nodded at him and that seemed to deflate him even more. I looked at the dark haired man, the last to be introduced besides the skinny girl. He looked quite grim, his mouth set in a hard line, and his eyes even harder as he looked at me, as though trying to figure me out. This could be fun. "That is Sq-… Leon, and that is Kairi." I nodded at Leon, but also allowed him a small smile which caused him to narrow his eyes at me. The red head looked at me before squealing and running towards me. As she jumped to leap onto me my head went out and she smacked her large head into my hand and bounced off.

The other's burst into a kind of amused laughter except for Leon who looked from me to Kairi with a look of what seemed to be disbelief. "Well then," Cid said once everyone had quieted down. "Come with me Cloud and we'll get you settled in."

He began to walk off, Yuffie bouncing along at his heels. I followed, but only after giving Leon a long, hard long until he turned on his heel and stalked away, followed immediately by Kairi.

I always liked a good chase.

* * *

Cid sat me down in an okay kind of room. It was weird though that the living room was also the bedroom. Then again, that did make for easy transitions…

An opening in the wall was to the kitchen and another door was presumably to the bathroom. Not that I wouldn't mind communal showers…

"All right then Cloud," Cid said while sitting in one chair and propping his feet up on another. Yuffie had departed for her room once we'd gotten to mine, so it was just Cid and I. "Tell me everything that's happened."

And so I did. It was really quite boring, my recounting of events. A few odd jobs here and there, a lot of wandering around. "but then, something really weird happened. And I swear, you won't believe me Cid.." I paused, looking intently into his blue eyes, trying to gauge how he'd react to my news.

No, I wasn't going to tell him I was gay. He already knew that. As did Yuffie. No, this was something that changed the very fabric of my being.

"So, what is it Cloud?" Cid looked at me seriously, and for once he had stopped chewing the straw in his mouth and had unconsciously leaned forward.

"Well, see… I've changed like you said. But the thing is, the changes… I'm not quite…"

**POV**

* * *

Reclined on my bed, I went over and over the events in my head from the meeting with this "Cloud Strife". At first, he had seemed like a nice enough guy. Not quite as seasoned looking as I might have expected from someone who hangs around with Cid. But then the look he gave me. And how he narrowed his eyes when Kairi was all over me –ugh – and how happy he seemed to be when I dumped her on the ground. Well, okay, he didn't look that happy but… It was just weird the looks he was giving me.

With a sigh I swung my legs over my bed, preparing to go to sleep when someone started banging on my door. "I'm asleep," I shouted. And then I heard Cid's voice on the other side of the door and with a sigh went and opened it. The old bear could really be aggravating sometimes. I opened the door and stood aside to let him in, but he stood in the doorway chewing.

"Well, Cloud's all settled in. And I told him you'd give him a tour of the area and maybe you two could spar and blah blah blah. You know the deal." No, I really didn't, and I wasn't all that sure I wanted to hang out with this Cloud character anymore. But Cid didn't leave any room for my answers. Just nodded and said, "Alrighty then! All settled." And with that he walked away, humming some weird tune to himself. Well yes, that was all quite settled. I grumbled to myself as I kicked my boots off and shut off the lights before settling into bed.

* * *

I woke with a start, not quite sure why. My hand unconsciously went to my scar and traced its length across my face. As my hand dropped I grimaced, realizing it must be the middle of the night. Aw hell, what had woken me up. I swung my legs over the side of the bed, my arms dangling between my legs as I stared at the floor.

Rubbing my eyes I looked up, and out my window and saw… A dog? No, too big to be a dog. A wolf? A rubbed the sleep from my eyes and shook my head, but whatever it was had disappeared. Damn, what the hell was that?

* * *

Breakfast the next morning was…slow. That's really the only way I could describe it. Me, Cid and Cloud sat at the table eating an assortment of bacon, eggs, toast and pancakes between us. There was no conversation, and there usually wasn't, but I felt the need to at least tell Cid that there might be some kind of rabid animal wandering around. When I told him what happened, Cid merely said, "Maybe you were still dreamin'. Not uncanny to see ghost creatures when you first wake up." He shrugged.

"Maybe it ran off because you sleep in the nude and you scared it." I glared at Cloud as he said it, though he wasn't looking at me. Just smirking at his plate. That bastard. I could feel his eyes on me the whole time and yet he couldn't stand to look me in the face and say something.

"I do not sleep in the nude." Asshole.

Cid laughed. "Awww come on, it's all in good fun Leon." Cid's attempts to diffuse the situation failed miserably, though he didn't seem to notice.

Cloud stood with his empty plate and circled the table to walk behind me. "It's a pity you don't." His whisper was so fast that by the time I turned around to confront him he was already too far away. Cid didn't seem to notice this either, as he was too enamored with eating his eggs and ham. I glared at him, my stomach flipping as I lost my appetite.

Angrily I stood up to go get rid of my plate. The thing that angered me most wasn't the fact that he'd said the stupid comment, but the way it made me feel. The last thing I wanted to do was meet up with him and wander through town with him…alone. But I was sadly obligated to and as I dumped my plate in the sink, I sought out the spiky headed bastard. He was leaning nonchalantly on the wall, apparently waiting for me. The look in his eyes was strange but I ignored it.

"Come on," I said gruffly leading the way out of the door.

"Whatever you say, Captain. Lead the way."

I heard him run a bit to catch up to me. I wanted to smirk at him, but he was at my side already so I swallowed it. "So where are we going first?" Why? Why did he want to talk? Couldn't he just shut up and leave me alone while I gave him this unnecessary tour?

"No where in particular," I said as simply as I could. Which he surprisingly took. I had expected to attempt to drag answers out of me but he didn't. As we walked, I pointed out different buildings and places to eat and hang out at. We didn't go to the industrial district as, he shouldn't be there anyway, but I pointed it out in any case. All the while I could tell he wasn't paying attention to the surroundings at all. The only thing, or person, he concentrated on was me. All the time I could feel his eyes traveling the length of my body and I wanted to turn around and choke him. Instead, once the "tour" was over I said, "Let's go spar," as unenthusiastically as possible. Yet, I was jumping on the inside to teach this punk a lesson.

"Aright," he said. "Let's go." I could hear a mocking undertone in his voice and I quietly seethed at him the whole way to the sparring grounds as he stayed silent and I stayed silent. But while I kept my eyes straight ahead, I could feel him watching my every movement.

"You have your own weapon?" I asked as we arrived at the sparring grounds. No one else was there at the time; they were all probably at work.

He grinned, "Never leave home without it." At which point he pulled a monstrous sword off of his back which I had somehow failed to notice before. Shit, that was a big sword.

Taking out my Gunblade, I stood opposite him and said, "Ready when you are."

"Ready," he said, while leaping forward, sword flashing. I blocked, but the blow jarred my arm slightly. Okay, so I was a bit rusty. But it didn't mean that I couldn't beat the crap out of him.

I started my own round of attacks with him which he seemed to have no difficulty with at all. It was only because he was young and had a nice body… No, must concentrate on the battle. Cloud locked my sword and drew me in towards him. "How are you feeling?" He panted, a glint in his eyes that was unnerving. Of course, not that it unnerved me. It would have unnerved someone else though. "Unnerved? Different? Gay?"

He pushed away, back into a ready stance. Astonished, it took me a moment to recover. What the hell? I didn't have to ponder his odd question, but as what he said sunk in, I attacked with renewed vigor, angry. I'm not gay, I'm not gay, I'm not gay…

He laughed as he danced away from sword. As my sword connected with his, I leaned into it, attempting to force him into submission. But when his body gave, I wasn't expecting the amount at which he gave. H fell down into the dirt and I fell…on top oh him. For a brief moment as we lay there sweating, a thought flashed threw my mind. Here I was with this hot guy, straddling his midsection as he smirked triumphantly up at me… Holy shit what was I thinking!

Not gay, not gay, not gay… I should be thinking about how much I wanted to beat the shit out of him, not how much I wanted to f-

I didn't have to finish the thought because as I had been thinking I had inadvertently relaxed my body which he took full advantage of and flipped me over. Now he straddled my mid section, knees pining my arms to ground as he leaned forward and placed the edge of his sword to my neck. The hairs on my neck stood on end as the cold steel pressed into my neck or… was it because of something else? Cloud leaned his face down to my ear and whispered, "Come on, give in. You know want to." His hot breath slid across my cheek as I tried to think of a way out of this. "Relax Leon, or is it Squall?" The use of my old name pushed me over the edge. But instead of fighting back, I relaxed with a resigned sigh. "There, now that wasn't so bad was it?" His voice had turned deeper, husky with…something.

But as he relaxed and released pressure on my neck and arms, I threw my arms up flipping him backwards onto his back. Grabbing my sword I leaped up and held the point to his throat.

I pushed harder with the point until it broke the skin, a pinpoint of blood welling up under the point. "Dead," I said, anger tingeing my voice. I removed me sword and twisted my wrist to lean the sword against my shoulder. "Sparring is over, as is today. I'm going home." And then I turned my back on him. So many things ran through my head. Anger, confusion…lust. The constant train of thought was, I'm not gay, I'm not gay, I'm not gay. But I also couldn't get those sensations out of my head, out of my skin. As I walked away I could feel his eyes boring into my back, smirking.

I'm not gay, I'm not gay, I'm, not gay…

I wasn't gay…

End 2

Very long…wasn't expecting that. But, very happy with it. Asked for an "uke" Cloud… Didn't know what that was, but now I do. Hum… Well, I hope you guys liked it. I'll be working on the third part this week and hopefully I'll have enough time to finish… Evil school.


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, so I realized that I haven't put any disclaimers on any of this. Which is a bad thing. lol. So for now and forever, I do not own Cloud, Squall, or any of the other characters in this story. I do not own nor take any credit for their creation nor the games they are from. I am a not for profit organization.

Also, I was made aware of the fact that the dividers that I put in were not showing up. –angry face here- So, I fixed it. And there should be no problem now.

Sitting on my bed, I observed the mess that I had made. I had vented my frustration and confusion on my poor room and now all the furniture – except for the bed I was sitting on – was upended and I think one of the chairs was broken. I threw myself backwards to lean on the wall but moved too fast and banged my head on the wall; hard. And it hurt. Rubbing my head, I grimaced and stood. Righting the table I sighed, deciding there wasn't really any point in fixing anything now. Flipping my hand, I knocked the table on its side again and glared about for anything else to knock over before stalking to my bed, throwing myself into in and going to sleep.

* * *

I woke up in what felt like the middle of the night again, but when I looked over at the window, there wasn't anything there. I wasn't sure if I was glad nothing was, or if I had been hoping to see the strange creature again just to show I hadn't been seeing things. In any case, there wasn't anything there.

* * *

Morning came and as I woke up it was like someone threw a bucket of bad memories on me. Just as effective as water but it felt ten times worse than being soaked. I shivered and felt like scrubbing my skin raw to get these sensations out of it but at that moment someone decided to knock on my door. Maybe it was Cid coming around to wake me up to take…Cloud…out again. And if it was, I was going to have to talk to him.

I jerked open the door, about to tell Cid that it was very important that I talk to him. But instead of Cid it was…her. "Oh Leoooooooooooooooooon!" And then she leaped on me like a kitten and wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my torso. "I haven't seen you in so long and I miss you soooooooooooooooooooo much! Where have you been? I hope not with that weird new guy." I thought of saying I had been, just to spite her. But did I really want to admit that I had enjoyed my time with Cloud? Which, I hadn't. Not at all. Not in the least. Well, as I reasoned, saying I had been with him didn't necessarily mean that I had enjoyed my time with him. So…

"Yes, I was with him all day. Now let go." And she surprisingly did and she looked up at me with a hurt expression as she crossed her arms over her chest. How pathetic. And at the precise moment he happened to walk by, Cloud. Like a magnet, my eyes were dragged from Kairi to his piercing blue eyes as he half-smirked at me and then winked. Apparently Kairi had been watching the whole exchange because as Cloud continued walking, Kairi wailed at me.

"Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh, how could you? Oooooh Squa-"

And then I slammed the door on her face. Stupid annoying little brat. She made everything worse. If she hadn't been out there bothering me I wouldn't have had to see Cloud and his hot- Wait, no. Stop. Not this again. I needed to get out of this room where the wreckage constantly reminded me of why it was there. Cloud. Argh. I quickly changed and hurried out of the room, but once in the hall with the door closed, I walked normally, typical self-confident me. Yeah, right.

Sadly…I mean, fortunately Cloud wasn't at breakfast, but Cid was. Perfect. Once we'd both eaten I could pin him down and bring him somewhere to brutally question him about Cloud. Uh…I mean, ask him about Cloud in a civilized manner. Not that there was any rush. We ate our food in silence as usual, but while I usually enjoyed it, this time it only gave me more time to think about him. And all the reasons I could possibly think of to prove to myself that I didn't have feelings for him. That I hated him, absolutely hated…and adored him. I was doing it again and I wanted to beat my head against the table. Ah, finally Cid was done. As he stood up, I abruptly followed, causing him to look at me strangely. "Cid, I need to talk to you."

**POV**

* * *

"So Cloud," Yuffie said happily as we walked down one of the many streets. "What have you been up to with Leon?" There was a hint of a laugh in her voice, as if she were mocking me. But then again, Yuffie was always mocking everyone because she was the Great Ninja. As I started to answer she suddenly exclaimed, "Oh look Cloud!" And then she ran off to go into one of the stores up ahead. Ninja stuff, what else?

I followed her into the store where she was already eyeing some weird looking weapons on the walls. Yuffie seemed to be quite content to absorb herself in the Ninja store and forget her question. So, I let her. She came out of the store empty handed though. Once back out on the street I asked, "So what have you been up to?"

Yuffie laughed and wagged her finger at me. "Uh, uh, uh," she said. "I asked you a question first. You answer mine and I'll answer yours."

I faked an exasperated sigh and replied, "Oh fine, I-" But a growl from Yuffie's stomach interrupted me. "Or maybe not. Your stomach doesn't seem to want me to talk to you."

Rolling her eyes she said, "Come on, we can eat and talk. I know a great place." Grabbing my hand, she took off down the street dragging me behind her. Streets went by so fast that, if she were to leave me or if I were to get lost, I would seriously be lost. Not that I would ever admit to it, but, I might not return home for a long time. The thought of being lost and not being able to see Leon though… Now that hurt, and I'd admit to that. In any case, that caused me to make up my mind that I would not be left by Yuffie and I would not get lost. But, by the time I was actually thinking about where we were going, we were at our destination. "Here we are!" Yuffie exclaimed happily. "The Burger House! It's so good, you have to eat the burgers. They're the best." Yes, I think I could have figured that out by the name, but I didn't say that to Yuffie. She was too happy right now and besides, I didn't want her to leave me. Leon…

After we'd been seated and ordered, she leaned her elbows on the table and put her head in her hands, eyes sparkling with curiosity. "So, tell me Cloud, tell me! What did you do to Squall? I heard he trashed his apartment." The thought of Squall trashing his apartment made me want to laugh, but I only smiled at Yuffie, thinking about his name.

"So, is he Squall or Leon? Everyone seems to use Leon, but you use Squall. And I think Kairi was going to call him Squall once. What's his deal?"

Yuffie grimaced slightly and replied, "He wants to forget the past. Squall was his old name, and now he just wants everyone to call him Leon." She sighed, and then brightened. "But tell me about you guys!"

Still smiling slightly I said, "Well, he's not gay, that's for sure. But, I think he's coming around." Yuffie laughed at that, and looked at me expectantly. "Yesterday, we were sparring and, there were a couple of 'accidents.'" I touched the scab at the base of my neck where Leon, no, Squall had pricked my skin. The look in his eyes, the way it had felt together was just amazing. Even as he stabbed me, I enjoyed every moment of being with him. "He's afraid to admit that he might like it, you know, us. But he does."

Yuffie sighed a bit romantically and said, "How nice. Though I'm sure you have your work cut out for you." She smirked at me, and continued, "Squall…is a hard one to figure out. It's hard to change his mind or even to get more than a few words out of him. I don't think anyone has ever seen him laugh or even smile. The closest he ever gets is a smirk. And even then…it's rare." She sighed again as though I was him and she was exasperated with me. I gave her a weird look and she said, "Not that I have feelings for him. Please. He's just a mystery and it's interesting," she ended with a shrug.

"Just make sure you stay away from him, he's mine." There was no threat, but, I wasn't joking about the second part. I would have him.

**POV**

* * *

"So," I said slowly. "He's always been this way?" Cid had told me pretty much everything there was to know about Cloud. And I didn't have to beat it out of him, which was nice. That would have been messy, for the both of us. But, question by question, I had slowly found out Cloud's story and while I can't say it changed my opinion on his sexual preference, it did give me a grain of respect for him. Okay…so maybe I'm lieing. Maybe I like him gay, and I like being… No, I don't. Must stop talking about it.

Cid and I were in his room since I had trashed mine and hadn't fixed it. Cid got a good laugh out of hearing why I trashed my room which was a bit aggravating but, at least I had gotten my answers.

"And, why do you stay with him? With him being…gay…and all?" There, I said it. Not that I liked it…

Cid leaned back in his chair, chewing his straw thoughtfully. "Well, I don't rightly know. He's just a great guy, and I respect him. There's not much more to it." Cid shrugged and tapped his fingers on the table, looking thoughtful. "Though, I must warn you. He doesn't give up." Cid grinned at me, a wicked glint in his eyes. I glared at him. Behind his joking façade I could tell there was something he was hiding from me. But what the hell was it?

I said slowly, deliberately, "And that's all?"

Cid looked at me, for a split second, hesitating. "Yeah. That's all."

Liar.

* * *

I hadn't pressed Cid for more information. As it was, I felt a bit overwhelmed with all that I knew now. What was one more secret? I'm sure it could wait. Once I left Cid's apartment, I didn't go back to my room. Why should I? It was still pretty bright outside, so I went for a walk for some thinking time.

As I walked I didn't just think about all the information Cid had told me. I thought about the way Cloud felt for me a little too. Okay, so maybe it was a little more than I'd admit. Oh fine, a lot more than I'm saying. That's not the point. The point was… Well, I liked it. I just didn't want to admit it. The same cycle of thought ran through my head again and again. Argh, it was so repetitive, so boring. Maybe I _should_ just, you know, give in. I closed my eyes for a moment, remembering when we had been sparring. That had been…

I suddenly felt eyes on me, familiar eyes, and when I opened mine up, _he _was there. He leaned against the wall of a building as if the world was his to do with as he pleased, and I was what he wanted now. Cloud was watching me, just watching, a small smile twitching at his lips. Okay, now was the time to be real clever and think of way to get away from him. But, while part of me wanted to run away, the other part pined for his touch, his lips, his…everything. Without my knowing it, my feet somehow dragged me down an alleyway perpendicular to the street I'd been walking on. No, damn, where was I going? Wait, why was I complaining?

Oh, I don't know anything anymore.

As I followed the alleyway, it turned at a right angle ahead, and as I turned into it, Cloud was there, standing, waiting casually for me. How had he… And then I saw the alleyway behind him that led out to the one him and I were in. All alone. Oh.

"What do you want?" It came out a bit more gruffly than I had intended. No, wait, I had intended it, I wanted him to go away. My conflicting emotions made me want to hit my head against the wall of the building. Maybe give myself a concussion. Anything.

"Oh, I don't know. I'm just walking. Cant a guy walk?"

"It doesn't look like you're walking. You're just standing there, Cloud." At his name, he looked up at me and I felt as if he blue eyes were pinning me to the wall behind me. And in a few quick steps he was standing in front of me, quite close. I could just tilt my head down a little and…

"I just was walking." Damnit you fool! He completely killed the moment with his arrogance. Wait, what moment? "And now," he paused looking at me wickedly. "I think I'm kissing you."

He saved me the trouble of bringing my head down but surprised me with the force of the kiss. It was as if all his pent up passion from the past two or three days was being forced out through a simple kiss. Closing my eyes, I couldn't help but let myself be drawn into the kiss, the moment as his hands went to my face and then tangled themselves in my hair as he pushed his tongue into my mouth. Oh…damn. I let him. Ooops. My hand slid down his side and picked up his shirt, sliding underneath to rest on his muscled abs. So hot, so sexy, so handsome, so… Holy shit, what was I doing?

I jumped away as though he had bitten me. Not that that wouldn't have been- No, bad! Bad thoughts! Bad! I looked at him, saw the longing in his eyes and saw my own longing mirrored in them and knew that I wanted him. Wanted him bad. But I couldn't have him, wouldn't have him. Turning on my heel, I started to stalk down the alleyway when he grabbed my arm and pulled me back to him. "Why do you do that, and yet still deny yourself?" His voice was passionate, oh so passionate, and threatened to draw me into a whirlwind of my own passion. To just give in…

Spontaneously, passionately, I grabbed him by the arms and pushed him against the wall, pressing my body into his as I took his lips in another heated kiss. It was so good, he tasted so good. He relaxed in my arms once he realized what was going on, but then I pulled away, feeling…as though I were missing something. As though, without him I was empty.

But I walked away anyway.

* * *

When I got home, I didn't have anymore furniture to trash. Everything was a mess anyway. I mean, I could have just gone and broken all the chairs and the table to pieces but then, I'd have to buy another table and some more chairs and that was just utterly pointless. So instead, I threw my boots at the wall. Which didn't accomplish much except for putting two big boot prints on the wall. Joy.

I sighed, angry one moment, confused the next, and passionate the next. I have feelings for him. That was at least obvious by now. But, I didn't know whether or not I wanted it to be this way. He was gorgeous and he was a good kisser and… I feel like I could just go and on and on about _him_. But what would that accomplish for me? Nothing, except getting me even more embroiled in this. And I didn't want that. Or did I?

Someone knocked on my door and I shouted, "Go away." I didn't care if it was Cid. He could break my door down for all I did care.

"Squall." It wasn't a question, not even one of those statements that trailed off into uncertainty. It was Cloud and he knew I was in here. Ugh.

"Like I said, go away you bastard."

There was a pause on the other side of the door and for a moment I thought he'd gone away. "Squall, I know you're angry. I think I would be too." Of course, he couldn't go away and he had to try and play the hand of reason. "But, you can't keep running away from your feelings." It struck me how odd it was that he was using my real name, yet, I wasn't mad. I was…glad. Why? I could just imagine him, leaning against my door, arms crossed over his chest; chin tucked in as he stared at the floor and talked to me. His blue eyes thoughtful. Cloud…

I was waiting for him to continue but he didn't. Had he really left with only saying that? Just to check, I got up and quietly crossed the room to the door. Why quietly, I don't know, I just did. Opening the door I saw that he truly was gone. With a sigh, I went to go back to my room when I noticed something on the floor. A black rose and with a little card tied to it with a blood red ribbon. Knowing who it must be from, I picked it up anyway. Maybe even hoping I was right. One of the thorns stabbed me and I jerked my hand away slightly, but didn't drop the rose. With trepidation, I opened the tiny yellowed card.

"Yours, with love.  
Cloud"

End 3

So, do you guys like? Hopefully since I fixed the dividers, it was easier for you guys to read. And I am sorry about that. I should have checked to make sure it worked. –hides- lol. I will get four up hopefully soon should school allow it. I need a catchphrase for the end of this. Must think of one during useless Physics…


	4. Chapter 4

My longest chapter yet! -dances- No long prologue because if I talked, I'd ruin in. lol.

I woke up feeling like I had a hangover. I really didn't, because I don't like to drink alone. But, after I'd "visited" Squall I went for a long run. A really long run. And now I was exhausted and – as I just realized – someone was pounding on my door. With a groan, I pulled myself out of bed and dragged open the door with a disinterested, "What?"

"Cloud we need to- OH MY GOSH!" And then stupid Kairi began to scream uncontrollably.

"Shut up you stupid girl! What's wrong with you?" And then I realized… I was naked. Um…oops? And at that very moment Squall decided to come and see why Kairi was screaming. When he saw me he looked a bit taken aback but then it seemed as though he were, well, admiring me. That was a nice change. Though, I would have given anything to see him look at me like he had in the alleyway.

But then he regained his composure enough to glare at me and say, "And you were trying to make fun of me. Go put some clothes on before you blind Kai- the two of us." He thought he had caught his mistake but I noticed anyway and it made me gleefully happy inside.

But instead of immediately gushing at Squall's slip up which I'm sure he would not have appreciated, I sighed melodramatically and retreated into my room. But not before catching Squall's eye. He looked angry, but that wasn't the only thing there. I dug through my stuff for a few moments before finding my clothing which I quickly donned. Finished with that, I opened the door and only Kairi was there. Disappointed, I asked, "Where'd he go?"

Kairi glared at me and replied coldly, "To breakfast."

"Well I may as well-"

"No you won't!" She was practically screaming at me, again, and I'd barely said anything. At least I had clothes on now. Sheesh. "You can't just waltz in here and take the man I love!" Now she was hysterical, tears streaming down her face. As if she really loved him. The moment I had shown up she had abandoned him for me. Or, had at least tried to. Put a quick stop to that.

"Awww, you're breaking my heart, really. But he obviously doesn't want you. So just leave well enough alone." Stupid, annoying, little slut of a girl. Pick one freaking man.

"That is not true!" She was still screaming and I think my ears were starting to bleed. "He was never so distant until you came. He was, he was…perfect." Kairi swooned and got a dreamy look in her eyes before hissing, "You stay away from him." She glared angrily at me before running off down the hall. Had people emanated visible auras, hers would have been some kind of angry color. Maybe a dark red with acidic green lightning in it. Or maybe some other color. But she was definitely angry. Or crazed.

Squall wasn't at breakfast anymore when I got there. If he had even gone to breakfast at all. But Cid was there, still eating what I guessed was his third helping. Sitting across from him, he said between mouthfuls, "How's it going with Leon?"

I shrugged and grinned. "Well enough."

"You know he was asking me a lot of question about you the other day. Where you come from, why and how we know each other. It was a surprisingly long story. He also asked about you being gay."

"Did he now?" I hadn't really expected Squall to go and try to find out so much information about me. I wasn't sure whether I should be touched or worried. "Did you tell him anything else?"

"No, nothing about that. Don't worry." I hadn't expected Cid to tell him. But affirming that he hadn't made me feel better about it. "Kairi was screaming a lot this morning. Why?" He looked at me accusatorially as if I had actually done anything on purpose to her. Although, introducing her head to my sword might be fun…

"She's mad at me because she thinks I'm taking Squall from her. And she wasn't happy when I explained that he was never hers to begin with. Needless to say, she wasn't happy with me at all. Squall wasn't here to tell you this at breakfast? Cid shook his head. "Hell, I think I'll go and find him then."

* * *

Squall was obviously very good at hiding when he wanted to be. I had been unable to find him for some time and was beginning to get more than a little frustrated. As I wandered through the streets, shouting caught my attention. And since I still had not been able to find Squall, I figured I would go and investigate this happening. Maybe it would take my mind off of Squall. Hah…as if that were even possible.

The two shouting were Sora and Riku. Sora was flailing his arms about as though he were trying to take flight. He was also doing most of the yelling. Riku stood there, hands on his hips, with an aura of quiet fury swimming around him. Fun. More angry auras.

Riku snarled something at Sora which seemed to cause an instant change in the younger boy's demeanor. He was suddenly quieted and saddened. Riku turned away from Sora and skulked away in my general direction. When he noticed me standing there, having watched their little exchange, he paused mid-step but didn't alter his direction. I allowed him to pass me for a few moments before turning and falling into step beside him. Riku refused to look at me or even acknowledge that I was there. But did that discourage me? Of course not. If I let that discourage me than where would I be with Squall? Absolutely nowhere. So instead of backing off I said, "What was that all about?"

"It's none of you business!" Riku snarled at me and looked as though he were about to leap onto me and rip out my throat. I'd like to see him try. He turned on his heel as though he was going to walk away from me again but then turned around again. "That child over there," and he pointed a shaking finger at Sora, "is afraid of what everyone else will think about us being together. And he just doesn't want to listen to me because his big head is filled with nothing!" Riku seemed to be yelling at Sora more than me. Which is kind of what I had expected. "And now, he wants to break up with me because he thinks I don't understand his feelings!" Riku threw his hands up into the air and then turned and walked away.

Once Riku had screamed at Sora through me – why was everyone screaming today? – I went to go and talk to Sora. The brunette was standing there dejectedly, and looked up at me with a pleading expression. "Tell him I didn't mean it. Tell him that…that I really do love him. I didn't want to break up with him. I'm just afraid, and I didn't know what to do and I didn't know how to talk to him and-"

"Shut up." Sora complied though he looked like a wounded dog more than ever now, but he stopped talking and looked pitifully at me. "Instead of telling all this to me, you should tell it to him. That would make more sense wouldn't it?" He hesitated, opening and closing his mouth a couple of times like fish as though he wanted to say something. He didn't say anything though, and closed his mouth and nodded. "Good. So that's what you'll do now. And don't worry about what other people might say or think. Love is love. You can't change that, and neither can they." Sora seemed heartened by what I said, and with a quick "Thanks!" ran off in the direction Riku had gone. Well, now that my job is done here, I can go and continue in search of Squall. Wherever he might be.

I picked a street at random and walked down it, twisting my head here and there to look into shops and down streets for any trace of Squall. But there was no sign of him. As I turned down another street, I saw him walking out of a district of town that he had not shown me, and therefore I had not ventured into. It was the whole, "getting lost deal," again. But that was where he had been hiding for, what, the whole morning? He didn't seem to notice me so I followed him. Maybe he was going to another of his hiding places. Squall turned down a side street and in an effort not to lose him – again – I ran to catch up. But when I got to the side street, he wasn't there anymore. "Damn it," I muttered. Where the hell had he gone? Wandering farther into the side street, I looked up and down the walls, but there didn't seem to be anywhere the he could have conceivably gone into.

Suddenly there was a light "thud" behind me. Calloused hands covered by eyes and a soft voice said, "Guess who?" For a moment I was desperately confused. I had been looking for Squall, right? But now, I was absolutely sure that the man behind me was him, as though he had been the cat in this game of cat and mouse all along. I could feel that his face was right next to me ear, could feel his breath as he breathed in and out steadily. I was so dumbstruck at this sudden change in roles that I completely forgot to answer his question. Apparently impatient with me, he leaned my head back on his shoulder, his hands still over my eyes, and kissed me. I'm not quite sure how he managed it, since my eyes were kind of covered, but he managed somehow. I sighed and relaxed back into him, but then he pulled away once I had relaxed. "Does that help any?"

I smiled and nodded, "Yes. Though, I knew it was you to begin with. I was just surprised…" I paused as Squall released his hold of my eyes and allowed me to turn around. I stared intently into his eyes, and asked, "Why the sudden change?"

Squall shrugged, and I thought I saw a smile – a small one mind you – on his face, but the shadows made it difficult to tell. No, perhaps it was just a trick of the light. "Because," he began. "Because, I realized, I think, we are made for one another." The new revelation was even more surprising than the kiss. He had kissed me before in the alleyway, and that had just been to placate me I guess. But actually saying it, that meant something. He leaned down and kissed me again, wrapping his arms around my waist and drawing me into him. I let him pull me in, because what else was there to do? Run? Hell no. As his tongue slipped into my mouth I sighed, letting him take control. I had been doing the chasing for so long that it was nice just sit back for once.

As his tongue touched mine, it was like a burst of fireworks inside my mouth. He tasted good, and I wanted more. Sliding my hands up his sides, I touched his face and then reached behind his neck, pulling him down closer to me as our tongues danced in our mouths. I moved to push Squall against the wall, but he had control over my waist, and thus, my legs, and instead I wound up being against the wall. His hot hands slid up my shirt again and I shivered, enjoying the feel of his touch on my bare flesh. I wanted to take him back to my room where we could do so much more than outside in this alleyway. I mean, hell, I could go now but, I doubt he would want to. Though, he had already surprised me more than once today.

I could feel his hands traveling up my stomach towards my chest, feeling every muscle and sinew beneath my skin. I longed to touch him in the same way but the position that he had me in against the wall with my hands around his neck prevented me from bringing my arms down. I broke the kiss and said softly, "Squall…" And then I heard someone gasp. Oh shit. We both looked over to see who it was.

Kairi. Damn it!

"Leon, what are you doing!" Kairi had her hands on her hips, a look of pure hatred thrown at me before she looked sadly at Squall.

Squall sighed, and growled, "Go away Kairi." But she would not go.

"No, Leon. You should leave him. He doesn't love you like I do." In my mind, I silently pleaded with her to stop, pleaded with her to just leave us alone. But the damage was already done. Squall's hands slid out from under my shirt and he ducked out of my grasp. He stalked over to Kairi, and he towered over her, making her seem small and insignificant. She seemed to feel her insignificance too, because she looked at the ground and shuffled her feet.

"Kairi, you do not govern my life, you are not even a part of my life. You are annoying. Leave me alone." And then he left. Kairi stood there taken aback before running off. Hopefully that would be the last of her. But now Squall was gone. Wonderful. I snarled at Kairi's retreating back, and turned towards the opposite end of the alleyway with a sigh. Checking to make sure no one was around, I _Changed_ and then bounded out of the alleyway. Time to run off all of life's problems.

**POV**

* * *

I didn't know how long I had been sitting in my room, with my elbows on my knees and head in my hands, staring down at the wooden floor. I had counted the lines in that one spot of floor around fifty times already and I hadn't gotten any farther in my thoughts. For some reason, I just couldn't get past those few moments in the side street with Cloud, those few precious, glorious moments, before Kairi had come. As usual, she managed to ruin everything. A common thread with Kairi, but that wasn't new now was it? I guess I should have guessed she would have found me. And then drawn Cloud into somewhere more private…

Hindsight is always perfect. Unfortunately, you only have it after something has happened.

My hands still felt warm from the heat in his skin, and I could still feel the smooth muscles shift beneath my fingers as he breathed. As I closed my eyes, I could relive the moments as if I was actually there again. His hands on my face and in my hair; rough and gentle at the same time. His tongue on mine, and mine on his as they danced between our mouths. It was strange, the way it felt with another man. I'd kissed other women before and they all had this particular way about kissing. Sure they all had individual and unique ways of kissing and some were more…unique than others. But Cloud's kiss was a hundred times better. It was as if every one of my senses went into over drive and nothing could go wrong.

Unless of course, Kairi randomly appeared. Damn it, how had she found me? She was such a nuisance. Someone really needed to find her a boyfriend. Or maybe even a girlfriend…

Someone was knocking on my door. I was recounting the lines in the wood for I think the 67th time now. Why should I stop now just to answer the door? I scratched the bridge of my nose and continued counting as the knocking paused. And then, "Squall, I know you're in there." Cloud hadn't even finished by the time I had leaped up and opened the door. "Hah, I knew you were home." He was grinning lopsidedly and I just wanted to kiss him again, but I held back.

"Yes, I'm home. I came back after I left. I…I didn't mean to walk away. I was just, frustrated and…" I didn't know how else to continue and sighed, closing my eyes for a moment before opening them to look at Cloud again.

"It's okay," he said softly. "I understand." He leaned forward and kissed me softly on the lips, lingering for a few moments before pulling back and crossing his arms over his chest. "So, does this mean that you're giving in?" My mind flashed back to when we had been sparring, when he had straddled my midsection and held the sword to my throat. He had asked me then to give in and I had refused. I shivered indiscernibly at the thought of how I might have lost him that day. I had refused him, and yet he had continued chasing me.

"No, not giving in. Just changing course." And to my surprise, a smile tugged at my lips. A smile. The very thought of smiling seemed appalling to me, and yet here I was with a smile, granted a very small one. The blonde man before me seemed just as surprised as I was that I had smiled. But then he grinned back at me.

"Come with me Squall." For a moment I hesitated. He was going to take this a step farther; I could tell by the way he looked, the new undertone to his voice. Did I want to take this farther than I already was? Sure I had been kissing him and everything. But, this was different. Very different. Cloud looked at me, his blue eyes encouraging, pleading. How could I refuse him? Refuse myself? Closing the door behind me, he gave me a satisfied nod before heading down the hallway with me in tow. My mind was racing and I felt as though he could hear my heart beating, it was so loud in my ears. What was I nervous about? He might just be inviting me over for something to eat or drink or…some other innocent reason.

Haha, sure. That's why he looked at me with that iniquitous glint in his eyes when he said, "Come with me Squall." Yes, I could just hear him adding, "I have some great food at my place and I want to share it with you." I could so hear that.

After what seemed like an eternity, he pushed open the door to his room and I hesitated a moment before following. It had really only taken two minutes to get to his apartment, since it was just down the hall from mine. The door closed with an ominous sense of finality behind me. This was the point of no return; I'd committed myself to this, to him, to us… It wasn't just a matter of love now; it was a matter of…

"You're thinking too much." My thoughts crumbled around me as his voice enveloped me, and brought my eyes to him bathed in the moonlight. "The more you think, the more you're going to confuse or scare yourself." He stepped forward to stand before me and looked up into my eyes. "Just open your heart and your mind." He touched his lips to mine as he placed his hands on my shoulders and began to drag them down my arms, bringing my jacket down with his hands. Cloud sighed into my mouth as my hand went up to his shoulders in an attempt to remove his black cape thing. Damn I sucked at this whole undressing thing. And he seemed to realize that.

Because, while still kissing me and still pulling my jacket off, he managed to pull off the cape thing with his other hand. Damn he was good. Now that I didn't have to deal with buttons or clasps or anything, I grabbed the hem of his black shirt and pulled it over his head. Score one for me; that was easy enough. As he pulled my shirt over my head, he paused, leaning his head against my shoulder and breathed deeply. As I wrapped my arms around his waist, he laughed softly. "You're still thinking too much. I can feel it in the stiffness of your shoulders and back." He nipped at my chest and I jumped, surprised, but I still kept my arms around his waist. "Relax, have some fun." He grinned up at me, running a thumb over the small bruise on my right pectoral. Relax? Have fun? Words that were usually so foreign and unheard of to me suddenly seemed to have renewed meaning. Leaning my chin on his head, I breathed deeply, letting his smell saturate my senses. He smelled like leather and crushed pine needles. Interesting. And then to my surprise, I felt myself relax. Cloud smiled against my chest and pulled out from under me. "Good."

I pressed my lips to his, with renewed passion, running my tongue over his closed lips before he let me in. I could feel his fingers working on my pants and felt like smirking because now he was having difficulty. Tracing my fingers over his shoulders and then down his back, I slid the over his sides and to his abdominals, causing him to shiver and moan into my mouth. Ooo, that was nice. Just as I started to work on his pants he had finished with mine and pushed them down over my hips, revealing my lion covered boxers. Eheh. He didn't notice though, he was a bit preoccupied with my face and figuring out a way to push my pants down without leaving it. Freaking leather, why does it cling so much?

I finished with his pants and they fell down much more easily than mine did, revealing his wolf covered boxers. Fine, so I peeked. What was I supposed to do? Stay blind of my lover's body? Not that I wouldn't find out what his body looked like later anyway, but, that's not the point! I'm sure he looked too. But, my pants were still on anyway so… Thinking too much again.

Instead of waiting for Cloud to finish with my pants I pushed him backwards onto his bed, kicked my own freaking pants off – damn leather – and crawled on top of him. The heat emanating from his body and his scent was like a drug. So powerful that all other thoughts were banished from my mind and a pervading sense of security and love blanketed my mind. All that there was, ever had been, ever would be, was Cloud. He looked up at me, waiting for me to…waiting for me to do…what? I dunno, he would be better off initiating…something, but apparently he was handing everything over to me. Straddling his hips, I leaned down to kiss him.

And together, we fell into the night.

So, after I spent hours scouring FanFic to figure out what constituted as a lemon, I just went with what I felt was best. lol. I like the way it came out. All well, off to work on Chapter five.


	5. Chapter 5

Alright! Chapter 5 is up! Even though I got no reviews for the last one. lol. It doesn't matter. I write to write, not to get reviews. –shrug- I added a twist , so…I hope you guys like it.

When I woke up it was morning. Or, late morning I think. Hell, it could have been a year later and I wouldn't have cared. The only thing that mattered was Squall's muscled arm hugging me to his body and the way his forehead rested on top of my head. He was snoring lightly, but when I tried to pull away he tightened his arm around me. With a grunt I pulled myself out of his grasp. However I overestimated the force necessary to do so and the result was that I propelled myself off the bed and onto the floor with a thud. Oww. As I got up Squall grabbed my arm and pulled my back onto the bed before rolling on top of me. "So am I going to have to be doing the chasing now?" He kissed me lightly before tilting my head up with his nose, observing the small bruise right under my jawbone. Oh yes, last night had been very fun.

He pressed his hips into mine arousingly but I pushed him off after giving him a quick kiss in return. Able to get off the bed this time without incident, I grabbed my pants and boxers off the floor and pulled them. Squall watched me from the bed, his elbow bent and head resting on his hand. His smooth face was devoid of any kind of emotion, kind or caustic. But his eyes had a kind of softness about them that I hadn't seen before last night. Once I started to pull up my pants, Squall rolled out of bed and began to search for his own boxers and pants. "You still haven't answered my question, Cloud." He wasn't facing me but the way he said my name still made my spine tingle. It was dark and passionate and dangerous. Everything that he was.

"Are you going to have to do the chasing?" I laughed and stepped around the bed, looking for a shirt. I ducked down to look under the bed and said, "Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how I feel. Maybe I'll – Ahah!" I stood up triumphantly with the shirt I'd found under the bed and began to dust the clumps of dust off of it. "Maybe I'll feel like chasing one day, and the next I'll feel like being chased." I shrugged and my shoulder brushed his bare chest. I hadn't even realized he was behind me. One of his hands reached around my side and plucked the shirt from my hands before tossing it to the side.

Squall grabbed my hips in his hands and turned me around. "I kind of like chasing you." Then he put a clean shirt in my hands. "That one was dirty. This one is clean, wear this one." After all that, all he did was give me a clean shirt. A bit anti-climatic, Squall. Pulling my shirt over my head, I watched as his muscles contracted and expanded beneath his skin as he moved. I admit it; I was entranced by something as simple as movement from him. But it's not my fault; I loved him. "Come on, let's go get breakfast. Or lunch. Whatever the meal happens to be at whatever time of day it might be now." He seemed as interested in the time of day as I was. Which was zero.

As it turned out, it wasn't that far along in the day, only about ten in the morning. Granted, that was a lot later than I normally woke up but I did have a good excuse. In fact, Cid was still eating along with Yuffie, Riku, Sora, Tidus – who I had yet to actually meet – and to my great displeasure, Kairi. Squall said hello to everyone but her, and she didn't seem to notice him or me in turn. Following Squall's example with the greetings, I sat next to him and began to eat the food we had gotten before coming to the table. All during breakfast Squall and I took every opportunity to come into contact with one another. Whether we brushed our legs against each other or touched our fingers together when passing utensils or food. The soft look in his eyes had all but faded into the recesses of his dark eyes, but I wasn't complaining. Why did I want to share that side of Squall with anyone anyway? Yuffie was grinning like a crazy hyena the entire time, and I was glad to see that Sora and Riku were talking again. Once breakfast was finished, Yuffie said, "You guys want to come to the beach with the rest of us? Even Cid is coming." The older man grumbled and glared side long at Yuffie. I wondered what she had said to him to convince him to come with them, but then decided that I'd rather not know. Yuffie could get pretty scary sometimes.

"Sure, we'll go." Squall surprised me by answering; I hadn't thought of him as a beach person. Yuffie clapped and jumped out of her seat and away from the table.

"Okay, we'll see you at the beach in an hour. Come on you guys!" One by one she grabbed Sora, Riku, Tidus and Kairi and dragged them out of their seats. They then followed her in a disgruntled manner as she trotted away from the table.

"So Cid," Squall began. "How did she get you to go?"

**POV**

* * *

Cloud and I went back to our rooms after we'd found out how Yuffie had gotten Cid to come.

"She threatened that she would tell Kairi I was in love with her." Cid had grumbled at us. Cloud had laughed and said a younger girl might do him well at which point Cid called Cloud a, "Perverted bastard."

Cloud had gone back to his room to get changed before coming to my room. By that time, I too had changed. He didn't bother knocking on my door this time, so I had just gotten my swim trunks on when he pushed the door open. It was my turn to look for a shirt this time. I still hadn't cleaned up since I had trashed my room the last time and Cloud asked, "What happened in here?"

I stood up, scratching my chin and looking at the wreckage for a possible hiding place of a shirt. "Remember when we sparred?" Ah, a shirt under the chair.

"Oh, yeah." Cloud sounded amused and sheepish at the same time. "You were that worked up about what happened?" As if he needed to ask.

"Yes, in fact, I was. And I think you would be too if you were randomly attacked by some gay guy." I had realized my voice had a razor sharp edge to it, so I quickly softened it and added in some humor. Though the humor wasn't exactly transcribed into my voice, which never happened anyway. Cloud took it in stride though and laughed.

Before I could put on my shirt, Cloud poked me in the chest and said, "Someone's gonna see that." I looked down at his finger to see the bruise he had left. "And, someone's gonna see that, too." He pointed to another bruise on my hip right above the waistline of my trunks. I scowled at the bruises and then at him.

"I should get you back for that," and Cloud grinned.

"I think I'd enjoy that too much. You might want to try something else."

"Like ignoring you?" Cloud gave me a look of absolute mock horror before pulling my shirt over my head.

"As if you could resist yourself."

I struggled with my shirt for a moment before grabbing Cloud's arm and pulling him back to me. Wrapping my arms around his sides and pressing my lips firmly to his before whispering into them, "You're right, I can't." He in turn pressed his lips to mine before pulling away with a lopsided grin.

"That suits me just fine."

* * *

Once Cloud and I got to the beach, Yuffie ran up to us grinning. "You're late! Where've you been? Cid almost left because you guys weren't here." She pouted at us as if we had convinced the old man not to stay even though we weren't even at the beach. "Even threatening him with Kairi almost didn't work." Yuffie returned to grinning as she grabbed our hands and started to walk backwards, pulling us with her. "Come on! We're gonna go in the water now! It's so warm!" She had apparently forgotten about her question about where we had been.

Cid was standing in the sand, watching Sora, Tidus and Riku chasing each other through the water. Sora had a foam football cradled in his arms and it looked as though he would get to…wherever he was going. Until Riku appeared out of nowhere and tackled him into the water. The younger boy came up spitting salt water and threw the football at Riku. The silver haired boy easily caught it and laughed at Sora who pouted until Tidus pushed him under the water again.

"See! We're playing football in the water. It's fun, you'll like it." I glanced at Cloud who seemed eager to get into the water, considering he already had his shirt off and was looking at me with a childish grin on his face. Sighing, I looked back out to where the three younger boys were still fooling around. Yuffie put her hands on her knees and leaned forward with a silly grin. "C'mon Squall! You'll like it when you get out there!" She turned around, looking for Cid who was slinking off towards the boardwalk inch by inch. "Cid! Get back here!" Yuffie roared at him and Cid turned and ran, causing Yuffie to take off after him. As she ran off, Cloud grabbed the hem of my white t-shirt.

"Let's go Squall." He smirked at me as he pulled my shirt up and over my head with such ease, it was as if I was a ghost and he pulled the shirt through me. Cloud let my shirt fall to the ground before jogging down to the water after throwing a challenging look over his shoulder at me. Now, I couldn't let a challenge go unanswered so, what else was there to do but follow him?

Once I'd gotten to the water's edge, Tidus shouted, "Leon! You're with me and Sora. Cloud, Riku and Kairi are on the other team." I looked away from the gleeful Tidus to see Cloud and Riku standing at a distance from a remorseful Kairi. Wait, was that…pity that I felt welling up inside of me? Oh, no, it just got squashed. All well Kairi.

"Okay," Riku began. "All you have to do is get the ball either to that umbrella for my team," Cloud glared at Riku, "Or to that rock for Leon's team." Everyone situated themselves in random places in the water so I followed suit. I had never been a beach person; I usually just sat with Cid and watched the others play around. Damn you Cloud.

"Ready!" Riku had the foam football, and was bringing back his arm to throw. "Go!"

And then all chaos broke out. We ran all over the place in the water and more than once we ran into one another. Sometimes we fell into deeper water, or a wave knocked us down. Surprisingly enough though, it was…fun. More fun than sitting up on the beach and talking to Cid anyway. I wondered where he and Yuffie had run off to; not that I'm trying to insinuate that there's something between them. No, absolutely not. I was just worried that she may have killed him.

"Squall!" I turned my head sharply to see who had dare to call me by that name and saw Yuffie coming towards me from the shore. Cid was standing on the sand again. "Everyone! Let's go eat! Chasing Cid made me hungry." She laughed, and I suddenly realized how dark it had gotten. Most of the people had already left and a few stragglers were just cleaning up and leaving. Then the foam football hit me in the back of the head. Jerking around I saw Cloud pointing at Sora and everyone else pointing at Cloud.

"Yeah," I said, turning back to Yuffie. "After I deal with that jerk over there." I bent down to pick up the football and Yuffie winked at me.

"Whatever you say Squall." Yuffie turned and started to walk back towards shore with the others following her.

"And it's not Squall!" I shouted at her retreating back. "It's Leon!" Yuffie raised a hand in "acknowledgment" but kept walking. Fine, be that way Yuffie. I turned around to find Cloud but he wasn't there anymore. "Cloud, where'd you go? I gotta get you back." Tossing the foam football up, I caught it in my hands and repeated the motion with a repetitive, _thik, thik, thik_ sound. The only other sound was the occasional wave break or gull cry. Where had he gone? Getting closer to shore, I turned around to face the ocean again. And then he pounced onto my back, forcing me to my knees in the water. I twisted around and grabbed his arm and shoulder before pulling him around my side and across my body to throw him into the sand at my side. He exhaled sharply as if the wind had gotten knocked out of him. "You all right?"

That was a mistake on my part, considering all my consideration got me was him jumping onto my chest and forcing me down into the sand. "Of course I am!" He sat on my chest as the waves crashed around us and ran up around my body. "Are you stuck Squall?" He laughed at me as I struggled to find some kind of purchase on the smushy sand to get the upper hand. In the end, I rolled over, causing him to loose balance and fall to the side. Seizing my chance, I pinned his arms to his sides and leaned over him, my wet hair falling to the sides of my face and dripping. "Oh," he said dazedly. "It appears that I'm stuck now." I leaned over him further and kissed him roughly. He opened his mouth eagerly and pulled his arms out from under my hands after I released the pressure on them. Tracing the muscles on my back, I shivered at his touch.

But as soon as we started he abruptly pulled away. "I have to go." He struggled for a moment before getting out from under me.

"Where are you going?" I stared at him, wondering if I had done something wrong. Standing, I grabbed his shoulder. "Cloud, talk to me. If it's something I did, or something I didn't do. Something you did…" I remembered back to when I had inquired Cid about Cloud. And how Cid had lied about there being more to Cloud. Did this have something to do with it?

Cloud turned around and shrugged my hand off of his shoulder. "There's nothing you can do. Go away." The words cut me as if he had taken a big knife and stabbed me. Go away. He turned to walk away again, but I grabbed him.

"What the hell is your problem, Cloud?" This time he actually pushed me away.

"I told you! Nothing!" We had managed to get up to the where we had left our shirts. I stopped short, glaring at his back as he snatched his shirt off the sand.

"Fine you stupid bastard. Screw you. Go run off to wherever you're going to go. Don't talk to me." He didn't answer me as he walked off into the night.

* * *

I should have just gone home after the incident on the beach but no. Instead I went to go and meet the others for food and wound up sulking at the table and picking at my food. Yuffie had repeatedly tried talking to me but all she got were grunts in return. Cid frequently glanced at me throughout the meal and the others sat as far away from me on the other end of the table as they could. Good, I didn't need them. All I wanted to know was why that stupid ass had run off like that. In a way, I regretted what I said. But still, he shouldn't have just gone and walked away like that.

Kairi left first without as much as a good bye in my direction which I didn't mind. Who needed the little brat anyway? Tidus left soon after that with a quick nod, and then Sora and Riku got up to leave. "Leon." It was Riku.

"What?" I said it in my most disgruntled manner, looking over at the silver haired boy and his brunette companion.

"Sora, I'll meet you by the doors. Okay?" The younger boy nodded and ran off leaving me and Riku alone. Cid and Yuffie had long since left me alone to brood. "Thanks, for what you did for me and Sora." I grunted in reply, stabbing my food with my knife. If that's all he wanted to say, he didn't need to. I wasn't looking for gratitude. I heard him sigh before he continued. "I know this is something about you and Cloud because he's not here with you. So, I'm just saying, you should go talk to him. Like you told Sora to talk to me. Sulking isn't going to help anything."

I turned around to tell Riku where he could put his advice but he was already out the door with Sora.

Damn kids.

* * *

Okay, so fine. I had taken stupid Riku's advice. Not because I thought it was what I should do, but because I had nothing else to go on. For a good ten minutes I just leaned on the wall next to the door of Cloud's room trying to figure out what I was going to say. Nothing was really coming to mind and I just decided that maybe it was better if I just saw him and made it up from there. Anything I came up probably wouldn't fit the given scenario anyway. Turning around, I knocked lightly on Cloud's door and listened for any kind of movement from inside. "Cloud? You home?" I heard something crash inside and I scowled at the door. What was going on? "Hey, Cloud, you alright in there?" When there was another crash and still no answer I grabbed the door knob and turned. It was unlocked so I pushed the door open.

"Cloud…" My words broke off as I saw not Cloud, but the phantasmal being that had been watching me that night. The silver wolf stood in the middle of the room next to a knocked over chair, its back hunched and its side quivering. "What the hell?" The wolf looked at me with a pained expression before whining piteously. And then the weirdest thing began to happen. It began to…change. There was no other way to explain the sudden convulsive explosion the wracked the wolf's body as its body parts changed shape and length and size. After only a minute or two, Cloud stood there, naked and hunched over, his breath coming in short gasps.

He looked over at me and said between gasps, "I…can…explain Squall…"

I was torn between running over and helping him and getting angry with him. "You could have explained this to me back on the beach, instead of running away."

"No," he shook his head and his body shuddered. "I couldn't…it wasn't…"

But I cut him off. "No, Cloud, you could have." Brusque and to the point, I didn't want to listen to his excuses. I felt…betrayed. Cid had lied to me; Cloud was keeping secrets from me. What else was there about him that I didn't know?

I walked briskly out of the room, fighting the urge to punch the wall. I needed to talk to Cid. Now.

He had left earlier than I had so he had to be in his room. When I reached his door, I stood there for a moment and composed myself. I rapped on his door as controlled as I could and I heard Cid grunt as something scrapped along the floor; I was guessing it was his chair. Slightly impatient I waited for him to open the door and once he did, I didn't wait for unnecessary introductions. "I want to talk to you about something."

Cid shrugged and stood aside to let me in. He closed the door as I took my seat, and then he sat opposite of me. "Did you find Cloud?"

"Oh yeah, I found Cloud. And I found out something about him. Which you lied to me about." Cid tucked his chin slightly into his chest, looking levelly at me as if trying to catch a bluff. But I wasn't bluffing. "Why didn't you tell me he was some kind of… wolf creature?"

The older man sighed and leaned back in his chair, seeming to age a couple of more years as he did so. "One. He is not a "wolf creature". Cloud is a werewolf. And two, because he asked me not to tell you." I glared at Cid, waiting for him to continue. "That's why he came here. Not because he ran into money problems or to catch up on old times with me and Yuffie. He was bitten and was having problems, uh, adjusting, to his new life style." Cid paused, staring me down.

Stubborn, I said, "Why didn't he tell me? Why did he put himself in a situation like at the beach? That was stupid."

Cid slammed his fist onto the table, startling me. "Damn it, because he's so damn proud! He can't stand the fact that he doesn't understand what's happening to him. He's angry that he doesn't know when he has to Change and how he can control it." Cid glared at me. "He didn't want you to think he was weak."

Weakness. I could understand that. I hid weaknesses from people all the time; of course that is, if I even had any weaknesses. Which I don't. And then it hit me. Cloud was doing the same thing then that I was doing now. Trying to hide a weakness because his pride wouldn't accept it. But still…he didn't need to hide it from me.

Cid must have seen the change in my face because he said softly, "Do you understand now?" I looked up from the table and met Cid's eyes.

"Yes, but it doesn't change what he did." Standing I walked towards the door and even though Cid didn't stop me, I paused and thought. But no matter what Cid told me, it still didn't change anything. Opening the door, I let it slowly click behind me and I went back to my room.

* * *

That night, I couldn't sleep at all. I tossed and turned in my own bed, tangling the sheets around me and yearning for…no one. That was a lie, obviously. But as foolish as my convictions might have been, I couldn't just let them go and go running back into his arms. With a growl I sat up in bed and stared out the window remembering the first time I had seen the ghostly wolf that was really…Cloud. What had he been doing that night, watching me? What had he been thinking? Sitting in bed, I wondered what time it was and looked out the window for any sign of sunlight. There was none; only the ghostly pallor of the moon that frosted everything. The moon. I wondered if that was what had been causing problems for Cloud or if it was really only a legend. But again, my mind circled back to the fact that he hadn't told me anything. I was getting no where with this. As I laid backwards in an attempt to go to sleep, a howl rose out of nowhere and seemed to echo everywhere.

He was mourning.

Did you guys like it? I hope so. Because, one, I broke the 4,000 word mark. I think I have 4,016 words. And two, because I have over 700 hits. –dances- Alright, I'm off to work on Chapter 6.


	6. Chapter 6

Alright! Chapter 6! I was gonna make this the last one, but, you all seem to like it so much. And, I discovered that this couldn't be the last chapter unless it was a lot longer than the nine pages it all ready is. Soooooooo, I will be writing more. Hopefully I can come up with more of a storyline. Now, go enjoy.

* * *

Waking up this time was about as unpleasant as the time I had woken up after me and Cloud had sparred. And thinking about him did not help my mood in the least. Sighing, I rubbed my hands over my face and silently urged myself to get out of bed and get food. Then I could disappear and avoid Cloud all day. Throwing my legs over the side of the bed after I sat up I looked at the neatened room. When I had woken up for what felt like the tenth time last night, I went and did something productive and straightened up my room. A sense of finality perhaps? But to what?

Quickly getting dressed, I leaned my forehead on the cool, rough wood of the door for really no reason. Except to think, I guess. Going down to breakfast would mean that I would have to talk to Cid, which would mean that he'd probably want to talk about last night. Which meant that I'd be at breakfast for a while, which might lead to me being there long enough for Cloud to come down and then…

Okay, I was skipping breakfast.

Now that that problem as solved, I had to decide on where I was going to go. Somewhere that Cloud couldn't find me. Where would be the last place that he'd look for me, if at all? He'd seen where I was hiding last time, I was pretty sure of it because I had seen him. With a sigh I decided and left.

**POV

* * *

**

So, my secret was out. To Squall, at least. And after last night everyone probably suspected something. I mean, there were absolutely no other wolves around here and I had gone howling my head off last night. Though, I did have an excuse to be upset. Squall was being a bastard. I was still going to breakfast to face him, and perhaps corner him somewhere and talk to him. Besides, I hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday and I was starving.

Squall wasn't at breakfast and him not being there annoyed me. Was it cowardice? Was he afraid to see and confront me? Or was he just too angry? Part of me hoped he was just being a coward, but the logical side of me knew that Squall wasn't a coward. He was just very, very, very angry with me. I sat at the table with a thump and speared some food with my fork. At least, I think it was a fork; I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing. It was like one of those times when you see what you're doing, but you don't really see because you're thinking about something else too much.

"Cloud, you can't eat eggs by stabbing them with a spoon." Yep, Cid had affirmed that I did not have a fork, and I was not going to be able to eat until I got a fork or tried to eat something that was meant to be eaten with a spoon. "Maybe you should just stab Leon with a spoon. That might make you feel better."

I glared at the old man. "So, Squall came and told you what happened then?" He nodded and I sighed, stabbing my eggs with the spoon again. I wasn't hungry anymore anyway.

"Yeah, he was very angry with you." Cid paused, forking some of his eggs into his mouth and taking the spoon away from me. "Use your damn fork Cloud." So, I did. He'd taken my spoon away from and I wasn't about to leap over the table and bite him to get the spoon back. The eggs tasted kind of like bark and stuck in my throat. "Leon feels betrayed by you." Cid pushed me back into my seat by putting his hand to my forehead. "Don't get up in my face and yell at me and interrupt me. Shut yer mouth for now. But, he's also stubborn about the way he feels, and the way he does things." Well, I knew that already. "Leon feels betrayed, Cloud." I guess Cid wasn't sure if I had gotten it through my head the first time. I realized I was still chewing a mouthful of eggs that I hadn't known I'd even put into my mouth. Swallowing, I looked Cid in the eyes and the older man stared back.

"Well, are you gonna go talk to 'im or what?" Let's see, talk to Squall and face his wrath, or forget there had even been an us. Truth was I didn't want to be utterly rejected by him. Yes, I admit, I was afraid. But who isn't afraid sometimes? And besides, it's not like I'm admitting this out loud and anyone will ever know. And Squall might not reject me. Or so I hoped.

"I guess I don't have a choice."

Cid grinned at me, slammed his fist into the table, causing the plates and silverware to jump and clatter, and said, "Good. Now, go get 'im."

* * *

Ha ha, easier said than done. Squall was, as usual, elusive. And now I wished that I had eaten more for breakfast because I was hungry and my stomach was starting to growl continuously at me. Stupid stomach. As much as I wanted to eat, I wanted to find Squall more. But if I fainted from hunger than that would delay my search even more because who knows how long it might take for someone to find me and bring me back to Cid and then for me to wake up and eat something and then Cid wouldn't let me leave and then… I was thinking too much about this. I needed to take my advice to Squall and just stop thinking. And go eat. Before I fainted from hunger and…

So, food wasn't that hard to find. Not that I was being picky because I walked into the first place that was even related to food. It was some kind of fast food place that served lots of chicken. There was even some kind of giant stuffed chicken thing running around. Which was really weird.

Once I'd ordered my food and sat down, I wasn't so hungry anymore. I didn't know why, but I shoved the food down my throat anyway. As I ate, I listened to the conversation of two boys talking animatedly at the table in front of mine.

"Did you hear that howl last night?" Damn, the people had noticed.

"Yeah! I asked my dad about it, but he said it was probably some older kids messing around." Alright, so, no one believed it was a wolf anyway.

"I know, my parents said the same thing. That there haven't been any wolves around here for a long time." The little boy sighed. "But it would have been cool to see one."

"I did see one!" The other one said. "He had big ears and was kind of silver looking, like a ghost." The boy put his hands up on his head, I guess to resemble ears. The other boy snickered at his companion.

"Probably because it was a ghost. And you're just crazy!"

"Am not!" And then they began to argue. It looked as if they were about to start a fistfight right then and there until a black haired woman came to stand in the door way and called to them. The two boys obediently stopped fighting and ran to her side before following the woman out of the fast food place. Just as I was about to turn back to my food, I saw a familiar brunette head moving through the crowds. My eyes snapped back to where I had seen him and sure enough, there he was wandering through the crowd. Well, wandering wasn't the right word. Squall never wandered; he always had a purpose wherever he went. So, he was _walking_ through the crowds. Leaping up, I left my food half eaten on the table and bolted through the door.

It was amazing how the crowd seemed to part for Squall and then close in around him and not move for me. It was as if they didn't want me to get him. Or, it might just have been my imagination. I followed him for a good while through the streets, never seeming to get close enough to call out to him or make a grab for him. Sometimes it seemed as if I was close enough but then suddenly I found myself farther behind than I thought I was.

When the masses of people finally cleared away, I broke into a run to catch up to Squall. Damn it, at this point I could care less that he knew I was following him. I just wanted to catch up with him. Even though I was sure he could hear me, Squall didn't so much as glance over his shoulder or change his pace. He just turned into an alleyway, into which I also darted into.

I was instantly reminded of the first time I had been looking for him and he had gone into an alley. I was half hoping that this was like that time, but the more logical side of me – a very small side mind you – said that this wasn't going to turn out that way. I stood in the alley for a moment before slowly walking down, glancing up the walls every so often. But of course, he wasn't there. I had sort of known he wouldn't be there, but I had had hope, at least for a small time.

I spun and punched the wall. The bricks cracked and I felt the skin on my knuckles break and a faint pain crawled up through my knuckles into my arm. Anger, pure and boiling, coursed through me. Anger at myself, at Squall, at well, I guess everything come to think about it.

Turning I walked out of the alleyway but I wasn't about to feel defeated. I would keep chasing him even if it took me to the end of the world.

* * *

I was frustrated throughout most of my search for the rest of the day. Occasionally it would slip to the back of my mind, only to resurface with even more force than before. So, I figured what better way to work off my frustrations than to actually work? Wielding a humungous sword for a couple of hours had to wear me out enough to the point where the only thing I could think about was sleep. Or, at least that's what I was going for. As I already knew, things didn't always work out the way I wanted them to.

And from there, I headed to the sparring grounds. Yes, logical and obvious, but just making sure that my reader was still with me. It would terrible for me to wander off to the sparring grounds and my reader still wandering around in the streets saying, "Where the hell did that bastard go?"

So, as I approached the sparring grounds I heard the soft footsteps of someone doing forms in the dirt. By the quickness of the steps, it sounded like a rather complicated form. But the steps also sounded very familiar, so I hurried to the outer lying edges of the sparring grounds and saw, yeah, you guessed it, Squall.

He had taken off his leather jacket and I could see corded muscles in his arms working with the sword, and the same back muscles I had observed only last night knotting beneath his sweat soaked t-shirt. The maneuvers were quick and powerful, the wind whistling around the sword. It seemed as if, if I looked hard enough I could see splits in the air where the sword had cut it.

Squall was oblivious to the one man audience he had, he was so intense on the movements and the perfection of them. What was the harm in watching him for a while? My eyes scoured his body, absorbing every little detail over again. Yes, I'd done this before and when he had had far less clothing on, but this was a different Squall. One who was working hard and clothed. Heh. His brown hair was plastered to the sides of his face and some of it was in his eyes but he didn't bother to push it away.

Once I had drunk in all the details I possibly could of the glorious Squall, I watched his form. The timing, the movements, everything until I knew it just as well as he was practicing. Moving quietly, even though he probably wouldn't have noticed a herd of elephants run by, I went and retrieved my sword from the rack and edged as close to him as I dared, still observing his movements.

I had to time this just right, otherwise I might lose a limb and that would be just awful. After getting into the feel of the movements and the timing, I waited for his spinning backslash. Where he brought the sword from his right shoulder, down across his body and around from the left. I assumed it was something where he would cut an opponent's leg off who was behind him. So, I was going to be that opponent.

I waited a few more seconds, and then recognized the tightening of his muscles, the way his head tilted slightly to the left. Now was my chance. I jumped forward, sword angled down to either stop or deflect the blow.

Squall's sword hit mine so hard that both our swords reverberated and the vibrations reached painfully into my arm and shoulder. I didn't dare wince, and Squall's face remained impassive though I saw his eyes darken. And I guarantee you, it most definitely wasn't with lust or passion.

We stood there for a moment, staring into each other's eyes and I realized just how hard he was breathing, how much he was sweating. How long had he been out here? He was going to work himself to death.

And then he pulled his sword away from mine abruptly and said curtly, "Cloud." I pulled my own sword back as he continued. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was wandering around and got bored and decided to come and work on my moves for a little while." I performed a little flourish with my sword. "I wasn't expecting to find you here though."

Squall rolled his eyes and scowled at me. "A likely story, I'm sure. Why are you really here?"

"No, really, I wasn't expecting to find you here. I was looking for you, but I had just come here-"

"Did Yuffie tell you where I was?" I shook my head and stepped towards him. Squall took a step back, still scowling at me. Frustrated, I flicked my sword up, wanting to catch him off guard but still expecting him to block. I did catch him off guard but, uh, he didn't block. Oops. A line of blood about three inches long welled up along the bicep of his right arm. Shocked, Squall looked at it as a drop began to slide down his arm. While he was observing that, I was looking at my sword to see if I really had hit him. Sure enough, a thin line of blood covered the leading edge of my sword.

I was so busy trying to figure how I had possibly gotten him like that, that it was too late for me to notice and duck away from the flat edge of his sword coming at my head. I wasn't sure what exactly happened as his sword hit my head, but I found myself on the ground, spitting blood from my bitten tongue. Like hell I'd let him get away with that.

I jumped up, trying to keep the world from spinning around me as I lunged towards him. Squall sidestepped and swung his sword at my side. I pivoted my sword, blocked and twisted, driving his sword into the ground. With my boot, I held the sword there and found myself nose to nose with Squall. "Listen to me, Squall-"

"Don't call me that," he snarled at me, working to pull his sword out of the ground. "You lied to me, Cloud."

I felt as if he'd broadsided me in the head with his sword again but I held his sword still and snarled back, "I didn't lie to you, I just never told you. And you're not giving me the opportunity to tell you anything." Squall twisted his sword and pushed the edge into my leg. I yelped and jumped back, flipping my own sword up out of the ground in an attempt to hit his leg. But he jumped back.

"You could have told me, Cloud. I would have listened." He circled around me and I pivoted around as well, staying in one spot. I could feel the warm blood trickling down my leg, but I wasn't about to stop now. It was only a scratch, really.

He feinted left, and then came right. I dodged the feint and the actual attack and caught his left quadriceps on my sword. I heard the leather of his pants tear but didn't bother to look; he had already turned and was coming at me again. "I couldn't have told you, not yet," I said jumping away from him. "You wouldn't have understood."

Squall paused for a moment, breathing hard. I realized that my own breathing was starting to quicken and I felt the beads of sweat sliding down my face. I spit blood again as Squall said, "No, it's not that I wouldn't have understood. You were just too prideful to admit to anyone, to me, that you couldn't control what you were. But we all have problems, Cloud." He pulled his sword up to his shoulder as though he were done, but then ripped it down across his chest. I jumped back, but not fast enough. His sword caught my shirt, and I felt the bite of it on my chest. Not deep, but damn that was a bit scary.

The fact that Squall knew about everything didn't surprise me. I knew that he had gone to Cid to find out what was up with me when I had talked to Cid this morning. And after everything that had happened, I hadn't really expected Cid not to tell him. No, what really stunned me was that Squall understood.

"And your problem does not give you any excuse to hide behind Cid and not tell anyone." Okay, he was right, but that was below the belt. I took a step forward and went for an overhand swing. Squall blocked it easily, but that's not what I had been going for. Once I had his attention on my sword, I dropped to the ground and knocked his legs out from under him. He went down with a _whump_ and I heard his breath get knocked out of him. But that was fine; he wasn't unconscious or dead.

Regaining my feet, I stepped towards him and placed my sword on his neck. No, I was not all dramatic and I did not say "Dead," as he had to me the last time we had sparred. I just simply spoke my mind. "I didn't want to tell you, because I wasn't ready to yet. It's true that I can't control when I Change and shit like that." Something flashed in Squall's eyes that looked like, approval? "But I didn't want you to try and help me because sometimes…I forget who I am, when I'm a wolf."

There, I said it. I admitted that I couldn't control myself _and_ that I couldn't even keep myself _me_ when I was a wolf. "And, it would be dangerous for you."

I released my hold on his neck with my sword. What else was there to do? I had told him everything, and I couldn't hold him there forever if he decided he still didn't want anything to do with me. Squall stood up, grabbing his sword as he did so, and regarded me with emotionless eyes. "Care to go again?"

What…what the hell? I spill my freaking guts and all he has to say is, "Care to go again?" I mimicked him in my head, adding a pompous, know-it-all voice and I glared at him. Until I saw a hint of a smirk grace his gorgeous lips. I…guess he'd forgiven me in some odd, perverse way. Not exactly saying, "Okay, all is forgiven, I love you again," and being all mushy and stuff. He'd never said, "I love you," to me before anyway. But then again, I guess if he had gotten all mushy and weird I would have yelled, "Where is Squall and what have you done with him you imposter?"

So, I said, "Sure, why not."

"Good. First one to the ground loses?" I grinned and nodded.

"Aye."

Before the words were even out of my mouth, Squall was swinging his sword at me again. I brought mine up to meet his and the meeting of steel on steel caused a screech worse than nails on the blackboard. But I didn't care. All that mattered was that Squall had forgiven me – at least I'm pretty sure he did – and he hadn't walked away from me. We sparred for a long time, neither conceding though my entire being burned with the need to rest, my clothing was soaked through with sweat, and I was bleeding from numerous cuts and such. Squall was about in the same shape I was, but like me, he'd never admit it.

Note to self: Never wear black on a hot day again.

Squall slashed at my side and from the position I was in I was forced to block awkwardly, losing a lot of my balance. He then pushed on my chest – which stung from his earlier slash there – and kicked one of my legs out. This worsened my already poor balance and I fell backwards. Squall kicked my sword away before dropping to one knee and holding the edge of his sword to my throat. He brushed a few sweaty strands of blond hair away from my face before brushing his own sweaty hair out of his eyes. I observed the scar between them before focusing on his deep brown eyes.

"I win," he said with a cocky smirk.

"Only 'cause I let you," I replied, wiggling a little to see if there was a way out of my predicament.

"Nope, sorry Cloud. I win, and now you have to do something for me." I groaned, hating the satisfied and arrogant tone of his voice. I had an idea of what he was going to ask me and I dreaded it.

"That wasn't part of our deal." Yes, I did sound a bit like a whiny five year old, but I couldn't help it. It _hadn't_ been part of our rules, so I technically didn't have to do anything he asked me to. But then I'd be a real bastard, now wouldn't I? In a way, I guess I owed it to him, but it still didn't make it any better or easier for me.

"So says you." Squall sat next to me, his legs bent and knees bowed out, but he still kept pressure on the sword. Damn it, I wasn't going to be going anywhere, and the sword was starting to make my neck itch. "The next time you Change, I want to be there. I have to be there. No matter what. I don't care about the danger Cloud." Squall paused and looked up at the sky. The pressure of the sword eased off my neck. I wasn't sure if he did it purposely or not, I was just glad it was gone. I quickly started to furiously scratch my neck. Just in case he decided to change his mind and pin me back to the ground again. "I…" He started but then trailed off, still looking up at the sky. I wondered if I was missing something, like a meteor coming to crash down on the earth or a swarm of man eating birds or something equally crazy. But I was too afraid to look away from him, as if he might disappear. Yes, irrational, but I'm sure you've all felt the same way about someone at times.

Squall sighed and his eyes returned to mine. "Cloud, I…I love you."

Now, I really did look behind me to see if a meteor was falling. Squall had never, ever said that to me. I'd said it to him, and we'd gone all the way with one another. But, he'd never actually _said_ those three little words. _I love you_. Or, you could say four. _Cloud, I love you_. Hell, what difference did it make? The same result happened whether he said it in three words or four words. But, I was still too stunned at his admission. He leaned over his sword and kissed me lightly, as lightly as if a feather had brushed against my lips. "That is why I don't care about the danger Cloud. That is why you not trusting me hurt me like that." He paused, looking at me.

I noticed a trickle of blood on his neck from where I'd caught him under the jaw. No, you idiot! Don't look at the blood! Look at him! What were you doing!

"Squall," inside I winced, but he didn't say anything about my using his name, his real name. "I promise, I'll show you." Not exactly an apology, but it was as close as I'd ever get to one. He didn't forgive me in words, and I didn't apologize in words. Squall's dark eyes lit up and he…smiled. He had smiled before at me, but that had been a small one, and it was such a rare occurrence that it still made me feel as though I were on top of the world. I smiled back, even though his smile had already faded. "I love you too, Squall."

He stood up, and stretched, as I stood up and stretched as well. "I think we better get cleaned up," he said, touching the tear in my shirt. "You don't look too great."

I made a face at him and replied, "Well you don't look to great either." Squall shrugged.

"I still won." My mouth dropped as he sauntered away, put his sword back in the weapons rack and turned around. "Come on Cloud. Just because you _lost_ doesn't mean you have to stay there."

He was taunting me! Sure, it was all in good fun, but I wasn't going to let him get away with it. I broke into a run, and Squall turned and ran. Passing the weapons rack, I dropped my sword into it, and then I really started to run.

The chase had begun again.

* * *

You like? I hope so. Maybe I'll have Squall get kidnapped by Kairi…that could turn out interesting. –shrug- Or I'll bring Sephiroth back to life. BECAUSE HE'S DEAD. CLOUD KILLED HIM. Yes, I can't get over the fact that he, along with Aeris not Aerith were brought back to life. Made me want to kill people. Meh. Okay, enough of my ranting. Off to write Chapter 7. 


	7. Chapter 7

Alrighty, Chapter 7! I love free time. I'd like to answer reviews but, everyone either has a question which if I'd answer would take away from my plotline, or it's not a question. lol. I hope you all like this chapter. I suffered severe writer's block and forced my beta to read it under threat of death because I agonized over several aspects of the storyline. Maybe I should be damning free time… Heh.

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Waking up this morning wasn't as bad as it had been the other morning. Last morning had been well, I guess one of the worst since I'd first been bitten. I guess you could say that was a bit of an exaggeration considering when you're first bitten, it's a very…painful process. And I hadn't even experienced my first Change yet during that time. But, that story is for another time.

I rolled over to see Squall's muscled back, complete with a white bandage that wrapped around his side. We had pretty much beaten the shit out of one another yesterday and the first thing we did when we'd gotten back was patch each other up. Or…sort of the first thing. More like, that combined with being in bed together. Heh. At any rate, there was a thin line of blood on the bandage where the wound had been opened up again. So we were a little rough, there wasn't anything wrong with that. As I moved to lean on my elbow and admire his body some more, of which the sheet just clung to low on his hips, my entire body protested painfully. Everything kind of ached, especially my head. With a groan, I flopped back onto the pillows, waiting for the starbursts in my eyes to recede. I loved his body, but I couldn't look at him with bright flashes of color in my eyes.

"What's the matter, pretty boy?" Squall rolled over, his mocking face and tone causing me to snarl at him. "You got a nice bruise on your face." His fingers brushed gently over the bottom of my jaw up to my temple. Just that soft gesture made my face twinge painfully.

Rolling my eyes I said sarcastically, "I can't imagine where I got it from." I knew full well that I deserved _some_ of the pain I was enduring, but _he_ could at least be a little more understanding.

Squall shifted slightly, and I knew he was hurting too. He moved a lot slower than he usually did and he looked a little stiff. But that didn't stop him from pulling his chest over mine and staring down at me, the shadow of a smile in his eyes while his face remained impassive. "Well, you started it." I was going to protest that, but he covered my mouth with his and slipped his tongue into my mouth. I moaned, swallowing my protest. He was so good… Maneuvering my arms threw his, I tangled my fingers in his messy hair before sliding them down his back and sides to his hips.

"Cloud! Open the damn door!" For a moment, I didn't think he was going to let go and I sure as hell didn't want him to. I silently willed Cid to go the hell away but he kept pounding on the door.

With a sigh, Squall pulled away. "You should go get that. This is after all your room." I scowled at him and stiffly got out of the bed and made my way towards the door. "Pants." For a moment, I looked back at him, a clueless look on my face as he sat there, propped up on the pillows in all his glory. His eyes traveled pointedly low on my body, and when I followed his gaze I realized he wasn't just looking. I needed pants to open the door. "That's right, Cloud."

"Shut up, Squall," I grumbled but he didn't answer. To Cid I shouted, "Old man! I'm coming! Keep your pants on!" Yes, I realized the irony in that statement but didn't dwell on it. Pants, pants, pants. And boxers. Pants without boxers was a very uncomfortable thing. I opened and closed several unkempt drawers before finding the right one. I pulled on the boxers, followed by pants, realizing that Squall was watching the entire time. What did I care? At least Cid had stopped pounding on the door and yelling my name. It sounded so much better when it was Squall. Though, he just kind of moaned it…

With my boxers and pants on, I threw open the door to an impatiently waiting Cid. "What the hell have you been doing Cloud! We've got some important stuff going on and I can't find Squall either. I broke in his door and…" At this point I had stood aside and pointed to a livid looking Squall in my bed. "Oh, uh, well then." I guess Cid didn't know we were back together or even that we'd been sharing a bed. For the first time he took in my appearance and Squall's and said, "What the hell happened to you two?" But he didn't wait for an answer. "Ahhhck, you'll have to tell me later. Riku is missing." My eyebrow arched up, but I realized Cid wasn't joking around. Besides, why bother joking around about Riku missing? "An' Kairi's gone too." Ah, well, that might explain some things. "I've already got everyone else searching parts of the city. Except for Sora. He's locked in my room right now. Wouldn't want him missing either. And he's a bit, um, broken up over Riku."

I nodded and said, "So, we'll meet you…where?"

He thought for a moment before saying, "You know what, you just take the Southwest area of the town. And Squall," he leaned around me, "You take the industrial area." He nodded and said, "Alright, meet back here for dinner." Cid turned and jogged down the hall. He stopped at Squall's room and started to fiddle with the broken door. I chuckled and turned back to Squall who was getting dressed.

"Aww, not gonna stay for a little longer?" I pouted but he just shook his head and pulled on his white t-shirt.

"We have to look for Riku and Kairi Cloud." I glared at him and his cool logic. "Besides, I think Cid was ogling me, and you wouldn't want him to come back and see me naked, now would you?" I gasped and looked from the door to him before realizing he wasn't being serious. I strode over to him and pushed him back onto the bed before straddling his hips. "Cloud," Squall said and rolled his eyes. Then I lifted up his shirt and pointed to his side where the bandage was now becoming very red.

"You're bleeding."

Squall looked down and said simply, "Oh." I sat triumphantly on him before he pushed me off of him onto the bed. He dragged his shirt off and said, "Well, help me with it then."

Oh, I would gladly help him. And not just with the bandages.

**POV

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**

We'd grabbed some breakfast, deciding it was best to get out as fast as we could. Though, if it had been up to me, Cloud would have been locked in Cid's room with Sora. If we were all thinking right, then Kairi had kidnapped Riku. Which would be a hard feat for Kairi to accomplish because she was kind of scrawny and Riku was pretty big. Unless Kairi had had help, but who would help her kidnap Riku?

All in all, I guess I shouldn't have worried about Cloud. As it was, he fought very well and I knew that for a fact. But still… I couldn't stop worrying about the stupid, dopey blonde that I had grown so attached to.

The whole of the industrial district was fairly uninteresting. I found that Yuffie had forgotten to lock the store but, it didn't look as if anything was missing or out of place. So I'd locked the door again and left to search the rest of the area. What was the point in yelling at Yuffie anyway? She'd just laugh and call me Squall.

As night fell, I gave up the search and headed back towards home and where the others should be waiting. Everyone was there, including Cloud to my great relief. Sitting next to him at the table, he grinned at me, his blue eyes just begging me to take him away from this boring old meeting. But of course, me and my sense of duty caused me to repress my own urges and sit at the table, watching Cid walk back and forth like a general waiting to address his troops.

Once Yuffie had returned, all giggles and no information, Cid began to talk. "Alright, we know Kairi and Riku are both missing. And we're guessing that Kairi has kidnapped Riku somehow. But we don't know where she is, or where she has him." Cid seemed to be talking more to himself instead of us, considering we all kind of knew this already. But hearing the information again did kind of snap things into a bit more perspective. Cid slammed both fists on the table and cursed. "We'll have to look again tomorrow. Cloud, I need to talk to you." That was a bit like Cid dismissing us, so Cloud and I stood up and went to Cid. He raised an eyebrow at us. "I asked for Cloud, not Cloud and Squall." I shrugged but didn't move.

"Cid, it'll be fine. Whatever you tell me I'd probably tell him anyway." Cid sighed and held up his hands in defeat.

"Alright," he said, glaring at me before focusing on Cloud. "Is there anyway that you could track them? You know, as a wolf or something?" I saw Cloud's shoulders stiffen and rise slightly in a defensive way. I slipped my arms around his waist and pulled his back to my chest, leaning the side of my head against his.

Cloud sighed, relaxing in my arms before saying, "I don't think I'll be able to Change but if you give me something that smells like Riku or Kairi I might be able to track them. It'll be harder though." Cid nodded.

"I'll go see what I can find and I'll bring it to you in the morning. Go get some rest now." He started to turn and then paused. "And I really do mean rest. Not, get into bed and not rest because you're…doing things." Was Cid turning red? And getting flustered? Oh yes, I think I was enjoying this.

"Don't worry Cid," I said. "I'll make sure Cloud gets a good nights sleep."

Cid seemed to accept this but again paused and looked between me and Cloud. I could feel that Cloud was grinning like crazy and Cid simply shook his head and walked away. I kissed the side of Cloud's face and said, "Come on. Have to get you to bed."

As we walked to his – our – room I said, "So is that how you followed me all those times?" I glanced over to see him looking up at the sky, as though thinking.

"Yes and no. The first time, in the alley, I tracked you. But after that, I decided to make it a challenge. That's why it took me so long. And it's also harder to do it when I can't actually put my nose to the ground. In the air, smells dissolve and disperse faster. Plus, they move around so you might be following a false trail. But, on the ground, as long as it's not too old, and there aren't too many other scents, it's a lot easier to track something or someone." Well, that had been an immense amount of information, but it did begin to help me understand Cloud's other half. Which is what I ultimately wanted.

I nodded as he pushed open the door to his room. "But, you can't Change on your own." It hadn't been a question, it was a statement. I had only seen him lose control, what was it, two days ago? Cloud scowled and shook his head.

"Not yet," he pulled his shirt over his head and pulled the bandages off to inspect the cut on his chest. But there was a determined edge to his voice; he would conquer this. "And I don't know how it's going to work if I Change while I'm wounded. Will it conform to fit the wolf shape, or will it stretch and rip me apart?" I grabbed the bandages and tape from the table and went over to where he had sat himself on the bed.

"I could try and help you to Change." Cloud made a face and ran his fingers over the scabbed up slash mark. He didn't answer, but I took that to mean that he didn't want to try yet. "What's it like, anyway?"

Cloud leaned his head on my shoulder and said, "What's what like?"

"When you Change or transform. What's it like?"

Out of the corner of my eye, Cloud looked as though he were attempting to articulate his thoughts. "Well, it's weird. Because you can feel everything changing inside of you and outside. It hurts, I guess because of what's happening. But afterwards, it's kind of nice. You feel free." He sighed

I wrapped my arm around him and said, "Could you…bite me?"

Cloud looked at me strangely for a moment, uncomprehending. Then his face grew dark and he set his mouth in a straight, stubborn line. "No. You don't know what you're asking for, and I'm not going to give it to you."

I gave Cloud an amused look. "I think I do know what I'm asking for."

He stood up and turned away from me, laughing, though it wasn't mirthful. "No, you don't. After you're bitten, it's hell, Squall. A living freaking hell where you can't tell when it's daytime and when it's night, or even whether you're alive or dead. For two days it was just pain. Constant pain and random Changes, not even full Changes. Just a hand or a leg or something. It's crazy and there's no way to stop it." He turned away from me again. "Believe me when I say you know nothing about this." I stood up from the bed and went to Cloud, drawing the younger man into my arms. He resisted for a moment, but didn't have his heart in the fight.

Running my hand through his hair I said softly, "I'd have you though. And for that, I'd go through hell." Cloud breathed against my collarbone as we stood there, allowing everything to sink in.

"Alright," Cloud conceded, "but not now. We have to find Kairi and Riku first. Then, then we'll see."

I tilted his head up and kissed him. "That's all I ask of you."

**POV

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**

It had been a couple of days since we first found out about Kairi and Riku, and we still hadn't found out anything at all about where they might have gone. The mighty tracker – me – had been unable to find anything. There were too many people and too many different smells, but we still hadn't exactly abandoned that specific tactic. As it was, I was wandering around the town again trying to sniff out Kairi and Riku. And again, I was having little luck.

An alleyway that looked promising – as all alleyways were starting to look – caused me to wander down it. As I walked, I got the distinct feeling that someone was watching me, but when I looked around there was no one there. If following Squall taught me anything, it was that alleyways had more hiding places than I could have ever imagined. Picking up the pace a bit, I was almost out of the alleyway when a hand grabbed my shoulder.

"Hello, Cloud."

That voice was so strangely and terribly familiar, but I couldn't place it. "And goodnight, Cloud."

"Wha?" I tried to turn around but then everything went black.

* * *

Massive headache. I didn't even bother to open my eyes, but I could sort of figure out where situated. Tied to a very uncomfortable wooden chair in a room that…had no smell. It was so clean and antiseptic-y, as if someone continually washed it down in alcohol. That scared me more than the fact that I was tied to a chair because I had no idea where I was. As I slowly opened my eyes, I got dizzy and felt like I was about to hurl so I clamped my eyes shut again. Damn, this really sucked. And that was an understatement.

A door slammed from somewhere far away and the sound echoed in the room. So the room was either very big or very empty or both. That was extremely helpful. I slid my eyes open again slowly, fighting down the bile as I heard soft footsteps cross a white floor in a large room filled with white walls and nothing else. Pristine, clean, sterile. Frightening.

"Oh Cloud, poor, poor Cloud." Her voice caused my eyes to snap open and I tried to twist my head around to see her. In the clean room her smell invaded my sensitive nose like a plague.

"Kairi, you stupid bitch." I was going to add, "Let me go," but honestly, what was the point? If she was just going to let me go why did she even bother kidnapping me? And Riku? I could feel her leaning over my shoulder just out of my line of sight. Attempting to move was fruitless since my hands and legs were strapped to the arms and legs of the chair. A strap went across my shoulders and upper arms preventing me from turning much. "Don't you have better things to do?"

The red head strode in front of me, her hands clasped behind her back a weird grin on her face. "I used to. Until Riku took Sora and you took Squall." She shrugged her thin shoulders but didn't look at me. "But now, I have Riku and I have you." Kairi looked at me and tilted her head to the side before walking behind me again. "I'm sure Sora will miss Riku and Squall will miss you." I heard metal slide on metal and my stomach knotted. Oh shit. "But once they're done mourning, I'll have them all to myself again."

One of her hands rested on my shoulder and the other came around my other side where I saw a short, sharp knife clutched in it. "Maybe I'll change my mind and just kill you quick. Would you like that?" I swallowed and listened to her breathing in my ear and the quick, rhythmic beating of my head. Her hand moved and I felt the knife tip puncture my skin as if I weren't there. As if she was stabbing someone else and I was just watching but still feeling the pain all the same. She dragged the knife across my chest, like Squall had done before when we were sparring. Except this was slow and brutal. She wanted to hurt me, to kill me. All these realizations suddenly snapped into focus, and I couldn't believe that the little red head had actually had the guts to do something like this.

Kairi tugged the knife out of my skin and laughed. "I think I'll kill you sl-"

The door from no where slammed open and I heard quick steps across the floor and another, darker smell. "Kairi!" The voice from the alleyway. Despite the tugging of the broken skin and the resultant pain, I tried to turn around, again to no avail. "I said I wanted him. I would take him to get him out of your hair, and he would be _mine_." The more the strange man talked the more I recognized him.

"Oh, well…" Gone was the cocky, malicious voice, replaced by the voice of the girl I had first met. I heard the knife slip back into its sheath and Kairi shuffled her feet. Probably looking like a child who had given the dog a bad haircut. Except I'd been the dog, excuse me, _wolf_, and I'd been given more than a haircut.

"No matter, leave us." That voice… And then it hit me. All the memories flooded back and I closed my eyes, willing this nightmare to be over. I heard Kairi walk away and out the door, and then there were his step echoing in the white room until the sounds betrayed his presence in front of me. "Cloud, it's been a while." He touched my cheek and I jerked away. "Don't be like that. Just look at me." I declined his request by leaving my eyes tightly shut and my head turned away from where his hand had been. "If you cooperate, I promise it'll all be better for you." I could feel his face was close to mine and I strained to pull away even farther. I heard him sigh, felt his foul breath skim across my face, and then his lips were on mine.

Wait, what the hell? I snapped my eyes open and saw the familiar sharp features and long silver hair, the black armor covering a thinly muscled body and his face right in mine. I pulled harder on my bonds and tried in vain to move my chair. When all that failed I bit him. What else was I supposed to do? I have been declawed for the moment, but my teeth still worked fine. Sephiroth pulled away, eyebrows arched and an amused, evil smile playing across his features. "Just as feisty as ever, Cloud. Time doesn't change everything."

"How the hell are you alive!" I snarled at him in disbelief. I had killed that stupid bastard years ago, felt my sword pierce his heart and saw his body dissolve into the Lifestream. He'd been _dead_, the end of the world had been _averted_. How had he come back?

Sephiroth spread his arms over his head as if preaching prophecy. "Because Cloud, I am made of Jenova's cells. I can't die. As long as I can find a willing host, my spirit will never die." He stepped towards me and put his hand on my face. "That's a nasty bruise there." He pressed on the sickly yellow and green bruise from Squall's sword. I growled and tried to move my head away and stop the spreading pain in my face, but he followed my head with his hand. "You see Cloud, as a spirit, I had a lot of time to think about, well, everything. What else is there to do as a spirit?" He laughed as if this were somehow funny. I glared at him as he continued. "And I realized that, you were an amazing man. Strong, gorgeous, everything I could possibly want. And I wanted you Cloud, all to myself." I don't think I like where this is going.

"I found poor little Kairi, whose love you took away." Sephiroth didn't sound like he believed a word she said, but it didn't matter to him as long as he got his way. "So, I helped her, as long as it would get me you." He grinned at me.

"Like hell any of what's going on in your sick mind is ever going to happen." I spat at him, trying to think fast of a way to get out of this.

He shook his head at me. "Oh, but I think it will." Faster than I could react, he had unbuckled my arm restraints and tied my arms together with a length of rope, then undid the leg and chest restraints. Once free, I jumped up and directed a fast roundhouse kick at him. Sephiroth merely tugged on my hands and I fell to the ground. He pressed his boot to my throat as he kneeled down to stare at me. "We can do this the hard way, or the easy way Cloud. One will hurt and the other won't. It's up to you." I gasped and struggled against his boot before he lifted his foot up. I heaved in a breath of air before saying, "Go to hell," and throwing my fisted hands up into his chest. Sephiroth tumbled backwards and I jumped up to kick him but he pulled the rope and I fell down again, cracking my head against the hard white floor. That damn _rope_. As the world swam painfully around me, Sephiroth said, "I guess you've chosen."

I was so screwed, literally.

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Mmmm, little end note since I exhausted my talkative-ness up there. –points- And, I have the ever important chapter 8 to work on. 


	8. Chapter 8

Alright, my beta is a loser and is lazy and won't read my story for me to update now, so I proofread it on my own. Stupid beta… All well. Hope you guys enjoy!

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"Squall?" I rolled over in bed and stared at the door, wondering why the hell it was talking to me. Then when a knocking sound came from the door I realized the door _wasn't _talking to me. Someone _outside_ the door was talking to me. "Come on, we need to talk." I groaned and rolled out of bed, staggered to the door in my exhausted state and tugged it open. Cid stood impatiently in the corridor his face set and ready for an argument. I doubt he'd have one though; or much one.

Ever since Cloud had gone missing, two, no three days ago I hadn't really slept well. Or eaten well, or done much of anything well. Except scour the city and outside areas for him. My cold logic had fled me, and while it occurred to me that yes, if I became incapacitated I couldn't look for him anymore, but I wasn't really listening to the little voice of reason that pestered me sometimes.

"Sit your ass down Squall." He snapped the light on and pushed me down into a chair. I tried to rub wakefulness into my eyes as the bright light half blinded me, but it wasn't really working. "I'm going to go make tea. You stay here or I will beat your ass."

I heard him go into the kitchen and start rummaging through Cloud's cabinets in search of tea. Yes, Cloud's cabinets. I'd been sleeping in his room because my room was missing the door. Fine, I'm lying. Cid had fixed my door at no cost, but I stayed here anyway.

"When was the last time you slept?" The tea kettle was beginning to gently whistle and I tilted back in my chair thinking. "You don't know, do you." I didn't answer Cid as the kettle began to whistle loudly. He hadn't even said it as a question, knowing full well that I didn't know, and that I probably hadn't slept since three days ago. Too tired to dispute it, I yawned and then quickly tried to smother it as Cid came in with his tea and some for me.

"I don't drink tea." Cid glared at me as he took the chair opposite of me at the table.

"You'll drink it and you'll like it, Squall." I made a face at the older man and wrapped my fingers around the warm mug. The warmth felt good. "You have got to start taking care of yourself again. Eating and sleeping and resting." Sleeping and resting. A bit redundant. "You look terrible, Squall, and that's not an understatement." I waved a dismissive hand at him and took a sip of the tea. It tasted terrible, but again, the warmth was nice. "Don't go dismissing me you overly cocky kid. I am ordering you to get a good breakfast after you get a good night sleep." He paused before adding, "And I'm taking you off the search party tomorrow. You nee-"

I stood up abruptly and shouted, "No!" For whatever reason, I drained the rest of my tea and said, "You can't stop me from looking for him." What little energy I had left drained from me and I fell back into the chair.

"Exactly. You're not doing anything tomorrow even if I have to tie you to the bed." As he talked a felt my eyes closing completely of their own accord.

"Bastard," I slurred. "Whuz you pu' in mu drink?" Cid grinned at me.

"Don't worry Squall. Just helping you get that good night sleep I ordered you to get. And tomorrow, breakfast."

**POV

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**

Days just kind of melded into nights while I was here, and it vaguely reminded me of when I was first bitten. At first I thought this was less painful both mentally and physically. But while I was handling the physically pain all right, everything was beginning to wear on me mentally. Between Sephiroth, not knowing where I was or what time it was, I was kind of beginning to fall apart mentally.

Sephiroth proceeded to strap me back into my stupid wooden chair. He'd fed me, after he'd…played with me, but I had a voracious appetite and what little I was aloud to eat or drink hadn't sated that appetite in the least. Still, I managed to muster up a snarl as he patted my cheek. The stupid bastard. How I loathed him, wanted him to burn for an eternity in hell. Or…my mind wandered back to the legend of Prometheus, a Greek god who gave the humans fire. Zeus and the other gods sentenced him to an eternity of being chained to a mountain and having a demon called the Fury, peck out and eat his liver every day of eternity. I think I might like to see that happen to the Sephiroth. He after all, could not die as he so happily told me. Bastard.

And so, in the room that never changed in appearance or smell, except for the blood on the floor, my blood, I reflected on my life. It was kind of like that "life flashing before your eyes" thing except this was much slower and I was able to laugh or scorn certain memories. Plus, my memories were in color. Usually, people said the whole experience was in black and white. So beat that, mine was in color.

I hadn't given up hope yet; I still imagined Squall and the rest of the gang out there searching for me but I wasn't sure if they would get here before Kairi finished me off. And speak of the devil, I heard the door open and close and her now familiar footsteps scamper across the floor. Kairi entered my line of vision, all demented smiles and flying hands. "Are you enjoying your time with Sephiroth? I certainly hope you are."

"Bitch," I bared my teeth at her. Though, it probably didn't look very threatening. Sharper teeth would have helped, but I couldn't even master a full Change yet. I'd tried numerous times, since I'd had enough waiting time and times when I just wanted to disappear into a well of pain simply to escape from a greater pain. I felt like I was getting closer, though I may have just been delusional. But could you blame me?

Kairi shook her head back and forth. "That's not nice, Cloud. You'll have to be punished now." She sounded like some spoiled brat talking to a doll. Except this was much more real than that. Kairi pulled out the stupid little knife she always brought and circled behind me. Why she had to do it from behind, I didn't understand. Maybe she was afraid to see my face. Not that I really even cared what the reason was.

I know you're probably wondering why I don't just keep my big mouth shut. Well, Kairi didn't really care whether I was silent or not. I had ignored her taunting once and it got me no where. She did the same thing whether I "fought" back or just sat there. And I always found it to be a little less painful if I taunted her in return.

The knife point dug into my jaw line and she began to pull back. Ow, I hadn't been expecting her to go for my face. My poor gorgeous face. I would have had her kill me then and there if I really meant that, but I didn't so it was okay. Once she removed the blade I said, "It's a pity Kairi, that no one wants you. I mean, I'm sure you're the submissive type and would do anything in bed." The knife plunged into my side and I felt it break through to the other side, I gasped slightly but then clamped down on my tongue. She'd never actually _stabbed_ me before. It was always cutting with her. Thankfully, it felt like she had just gone through skin and nothing important like an organ or muscle or something. "On the other hand, you are kind of an annoying, self-centered, attention crazed bitch slut who won't take a hint."

Kairi twisted the knife under my skin and the resulting pain was bordering on excruciating. I clamped my eyes shut and grunted with the effort of holding my pain in. As she jerked the knife out, I breathed out sharply in relief and the overwhelming smell of my own blood made me feel nauseous. "I don't know what he sees in you," her voice a bit sing song. Very creepy. "You're an airhead, you're arrogant, you're creepy, and you're a freak."

"Sounds like you." She moved around to stand in front of me looking a bit like she wanted to peck out my liver every day for all eternity.

"I," she said indignantly and swelled up like a proud peacock, "am no freak. I'm not confused about my sexual orientation _and_ I'm a human." She sneered at me and said, "Unlike _you_."

I tried to leap out of my chair, but the restraints held me back. My efforts only caused the straps to rip open the already cut up skin on my wrists. "You sick bitch! Just because you can't find someone who loves you, you take away the people that other's love! And leave them to be…" I swallowed and steeled myself for the next word, "raped repeatedly by their worst enemies while you can't even look at them while you rip them apart with some pathetic little knife. You're worse than a coward. You're worse than the lowest scum sucking creature that ever plagued this planet. You're-"

Kairi screamed something unintelligible and stabbed me in the right shoulder with the knife. Oh, shit. And she just left the knife there and stormed out.

Alright then. On the minus side, I'd been stabbed and had no way of helping myself. On the plus side, she hadn't pulled the knife out which might led to massive blood loss _and_ I would still have no way to help myself. I couldn't decide whether to scream or…scream.

Comforting thought: Prometheus escaped the mountain with the aid of Hercules and broke the Fury's neck.

Now, all I needed was my Hercules.

**POV

* * *

**

"So, we know where he is?"

While I'd been forced to stay in my room throughout most of the day, I was animatedly thanking Cid in my mind for forcing me to stay here and recuperate. They'd found where Cloud would be, and I'd need all my strength for whoever was holding him hostage.

Cid nodded and I said, "How did you find out?" It was still hard to believe that in just a few moments I would be going to rescue Cloud with the others.

"Well," Cid began, "While I thought Sora was safe in my room, he escaped during the day to go and look for Riku and Kairi." I shook my head and secretly thanked Sora for disobeying orders. "He started to talk to people, asking around and stuff. And one person came up to him and told him that he'd seen a big guy carrying a blonde over his shoulder. Apparently, the guy followed them and saw where they went. He told Sora, and Sora just told me." He shook his head and grinned. "I can't believe the little runt pulled off something like that."

I jumped up and started to head to the door. "What are we waiting for? Let's go get him."

Cid laughed, and grabbed my shoulder. "We're waiting for everyone else to get back. They're all still out in the city, coming back."

At that moment Yuffie leaped through the door that I had half opened, falling into me and causing me to fall to the floor. "I'm here!" She shouted enthusiastically, not noticing that she had just dropped me like a stone. I stood up abruptly as the others filed in, in a quieter fashion. "Can we go now?" Yuffie saved me the breath of asking that particular question.

Cid nodded. "Have at 'em, guys."

**POV

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**

I felt as if had been only minutes before the door opened and closed again. There weren't any footsteps and I wondered if my mind was just playing tricks on me. Or maybe it was Kairi trying to decide what she was going to do now that she'd left her knife in my shoulder. But as whoever it was began to walk, I recognized his footsteps. There were only two people who ever came in and out of this room and if it wasn't Kairi, it was Sephiroth. Oh God, please no.

Unlike Kairi, he had no qualms about standing in front of me and getting up in my face. And that's just what he did. "Well Cloud, it's time we leave. Some of your little buddies have shown up and Kairi's having a heart to heart with them." My buddies? Squall! As my brain slogged through what this would mean for me, Sephiroth was busy undoing the wrist and chest restraints.

"Just think Cloud. No more Kairi. You'll be safe from her and you'll be with me. For a very long time." Oh like hell I would be. With one hand free, I punched Sephiroth in the side of the head. Something he obviously wasn't expecting. He stumbled backwards, shook his head before he descended upon me. One of his cold hands grabbed mine in a steely grip and the other one wrapped around my throat, closing off the airway. "Cloud, stop fighting me." I wriggled my other wrist a little, trying to ignore the sharp pain as the ruined skin was irritated and the muscles in my shoulder around the knife moved. He had loosened the restraint, so maybe if I wriggled enough I could get it open…

He leaned in and pressed his fetid lips to mine. Disgusting yes, but if it distracted him from my attempted escape, fine. The door slammed open behind us; well, behind me and in front of him as he snaked his tongue into my mouth. I drew the line there. I bit him, feeling a bit of déjà vu from the first time he'd tried this. He looked up from me, still holding my wrist and closed his grip around my throat. I wriggled faster with my other wrist as my vision began to darken at the edges. Unless he was a necropheliac – which I really hoped he wasn't – he was going to be very angry with himself.

"Ah, so you're done with Kairi are you? Did you all have fun _screwing_ her?" Who was he talking to? Were Cid and the others here? Was Squall here?

"Why don't you stop talking out of your ass and come fight me." My mind faintly registered that Squall was talking. Squall… I started to drift off into a dreamy place when Sephiroth finally released my throat. I heard him step away as I fought to regain some of my consciousness. I couldn't, wouldn't, die now. Squall was here; he'd made it before Sephiroth could take me away, and before Kairi could kill me. Everything was swimming around me and I could hear Squall and Sephiroth walking but I couldn't tell where they were.

"Have you come to save your precious Cloud?" Sephiroth. I ground and blinked my eyes, slowly shaking my head from left to right as if they would somehow clear my vision. It just made me more dizzy.

"Cloud?" That was Squall. I heard him step and then metal clashed on metal. Sephiroth had his sword? I tried blearily to remember if I'd seen him with a sword or not. Failing to remember, I jiggled my wrist again and felt blood sliding down my fingers. Damn it. Then I realized that Sephiroth no longer had my other hand. Yes, brilliant I know. I reached across and fiddled with the straps, trying to feel my around them as my eyes still hadn't quite focused yet.

As I worked, I heard Sephiroth and Squall fighting behind me and willed myself to work faster so I could help Squall. I finally unbuckled the strap and pulled my sore wrist out of it, wincing as waves of pain radiated from my stabbed shoulder. Metal squealed and screeched and my sensitive ears picked up Sephiroth's voice. "I can see why you want him so bad; he was a nice little fuck. And I had him again and again." Squall roared and I heard someone slam into the ground, hoping it was Sephiroth.

With my left hand, I grabbed the knife and tried to relax my shoulder to make the knife's exit less painful. I pulled my hand forward and the knife slid out smoothly, but still painfully. I gasped, not realizing I had held my breath until the knife was finally out. Then I quickly unbuckled the straps around me legs and stood up unsteadily.

The room spun and my stomach heaved, but I managed to lean on the chair and calm my erratic senses. Lifting my head up, I saw Squall and Sephiroth exchanging blows as they moved across the white floors now stained with splashes of blood. The floor beneath my own feet had a small puddle of blood around it. I pressed my left hand to my right shoulder, pressing on the wound as blood streamed out of it. As Squall and Sephiroth fought, I ripped off a piece of cloth and held it tightly to the knife wound.

Sephiroth swung his long sword over his head. Squall deftly blocked and kicked Sephiroth in the chest. The silver haired man staggered back and swept his sword across his body. Squall jumped back and I tensed as I saw Sephiroth's sword catch on Squall's white shirt. Squall smirked and stood tall. "Is that your best?" He mocked Sephiroth, obviously feeling all right. My silver haired enemy glared at him, disbelief clouding his features, and I felt like laughing for the first time in a long while.

Sephiroth stood up tall as well, straightening out the shoulders that had been hunched before in his disbelief. "No," he said and his eyes darkened. "I have a lot more than you could you imagine." Squall didn't falter as the silver haired demon came at him again, sword flying and flashing. Both gave and lost ground continually, neither willing to let up.

Until Squall slipped on some blood on the ground.

As he fell, a look of triumph filled Sephiroth's face as he plunged his sword towards Squall's heart. There was a flash of metal as I staggered forward to see better. Squall's Gunblade was up, and it had deflected Sephiroth's sword to his other shoulder. I touched my own wound in the same place, wondering at the coincidence. Squall's head tilted back in a silent protest, his eyes shut as Sephiroth glared victoriously down at him.

I needed to save him.

But how? I looked around frantically for a weapon but there wasn't a one in sight. And then I realized that I was a weapon. If only I could get the Change to work for me…

"And now here you are. Cloud's lover, about to die before his very eyes." Sephiroth tossed a look in my direction but then focused on Squall who was struggling to get Sephiroth away. In the meantime, I was hunched over trying to find something, anything to draw out the wolf inside. I thought of freedom and Squall and killing Sephiroth; of feeling his throat in my teeth. I could feel precious seconds slip by as Sephiroth talked. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of him." Just when I was about to give up with the whole Changing thing and attack Sephiroth with my bare hands, I felt that familiar twinge in my gut and braced myself.

It was really fast this time and painless, surprisingly enough. My whole body quivered for a moment before launching in the contracting and lengthening of muscles; of cruching bone and moving organs. I figured with how beaten up I already was, the Change would be even more painful but it wasn't, not at all.

Through the haze of the Change I could hear Sephiroth telling Squall what he'd do to me after Squall was dead, and my rage only fed the speed of my Change. It was as if one moment I was a human and the next I was wolf. Shaking myself briefly to adjust, I took off across the floor. Thankfully I had kind of leaped first, so there was so comical scrabbling on the slick white floor for me. The clicking of my nails on the floor alerted both of them to my presence and predictably, both turned to look at me.

Sephiroth yelled something, but the blood was pounding in my ears and I didn't really care what that guy had to say anymore. As he moved the pull his sword from Squall, I launched myself at him.

It seemed like I was moving in slow motion as my body soared towards him, jaws open and snarling, and the look on his face changed from fury to fear in a matter of seconds. And then my teeth were sinking into his throat and I heard his gurgled words as his blood seeped out of him and into my mouth, onto the floor. We stayed suspended in the air for a moment, me latched onto his throat and him thrown a few inches off the ground from the impact of my body.

Then life sped up again to a normal pace and he slammed into the ground, me on his chest and still grinding my teeth into his flesh for good measure. Jerking my head back, I ripped out his throat and opened my jaws to let his flesh drop from them. As I watched, his body began to glow brightly, turning white and then exploding into millions of green, circular particles. He was rejoining the Lifestream, as he said he would.

Damn. And I was hoping for a Fury to come and take him away.

I turned, my nails clicking on the white floor and saw Squall sitting there, Sephiroth's sword gone, with his hand to his shoulder. I limped over to him and he wrapped his arms around my neck. He stroked my fur and I nuzzled his face with a whine. It was so good to be back with him.

"Cloud, I love you." His voice was soft and those words made me feel all warm and melty inside. He hugged me tighter and I pulled away and willed myself to be a human again. It was surprisingly easy and painless again, and the whole thing ended with me kneeling in front of Squall as my body shuddered into its final human shape. Naked yes, but that didn't really matter right now.

"I love you too, Squall." Squall drew me into his arms and I didn't even care about the pain coming from my bruised and cut up body. I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his chest as he kissed the top of my head. I was with Squall again, and I was happy.

* * *

I'm sorry to say, but the next chapter might wind up being the last one. . Unless I can think of another plot twist… Which might result in me not updating until…next week sometime. Like, the end of next week. But, just figure that the next chapter will be the last one. I don't want to kill the story with endless, repetitive drabble. Anyway, lemme know what you guys think.

Also, I apologize for taking so loing to get htis one up. I've had a lot of homework altely, and then when I tried to update, fanfic wasn't working. So... Those are my excuses. Off to write Chapter 9


	9. Chapter 9

Woooo, updating. And it's not the last chapter. Eheh, the next one will be. XD

**Okay, there IS a warning with this one though**.

I have a lemon type scene thingy at the end. Soooooooooooo… My beta said I should bump it up to an M rating, but I don't see why I should have to make the whole thing an M rating when it's only like, a page of the story. Out of nine. So, please, let's all be mature here. I've warned you, don't go reporting my ass because you couldn't listen. Because, then I'll be sad and I'll have to hurt someone. So be kind…please? Besides, I'm going by movies. Like…The Notebook, and Catch Me If You Can. Which were PG-13. Which translates into Teen rating which… I'll stop rambling now. Now go enjoy!

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Cloud was extremely curious as to how we had found out where Kairi and Sephiroth had been hiding him and Riku. But I told him that that could wait for later. Because as much as I was also worried and curious about what had happened to him, we needed to get back to Cid and the others. Not to mention that we were both bleeding and needed medical attention. But as usual, Cloud was being difficult. I couldn't say that I normally didn't find that characteristic of his to be endearing but, at a time like this, his stubbornness was not needed at all.

"I'll be fine," he said waving me as he picked up his ripped clothes to see what he could still wear. His Change had ripped open his shirt, but his pants were kind of okay so he put them on. "You worry too much. My leg isn't that bad." He turned and started to limp towards me and I guess the door. I don't know what the hell happened to his leg, but it was making him limp and he wasn't going to let me stand in the way of him being all prideful and all that other manly bullshit.

Yes, I know, I'd probably be the same way. But, that's not the point here.

Grabbing his arm – the good one – I tugged my jacket off and slung it over his shoulders. "Put that on. And then you're going to lean on me and we'll go back to Cid and the others." He obligingly put on my jacket, but continued limping towards the door. I strode up to his side and snapped, "Cloud, if I have to knock you out to be cooperative, I will." Cloud turned around and glared at me, but stopped moving. Good. Without saying another word, I grabbed the arm attached to his good shoulder and slung it around my neck.

"You're hurt too," he grumbled. The weight on my shoulder did make it…ache a bit, but I wasn't complaining.

"You're hurt worse. So shut up." I grabbed his hand that was over my neck and put my other arm around his waist, holding him up. I walked while he limped, and together we made it out of the door and into the hallway outside of the room. As we tramped down the hallway our footsteps echoed, emphasizing the emptiness.

"Where exactly _are_ we, anyway?" Cloud asked. He wasn't looking around in interest, so I figured he'd been around here before. I didn't really want to think about why at the moment though…

I shifted him slightly on my shoulder before saying, "An abandoned warehouse in the forest." Above our footsteps we heard snatches of Cid's boisterous voice echoing down the hall. "That's them up there." Cloud nodded his spiky blond head. As we got closer, Cid sounded like he was talking to someone about death.

"I swear, if either of them is dead I will…" At that moment Cloud and I entered and Yuffie emitted a delighted, high pitched squeal. She dropped Kairi to the ground – she had been holding the red head in the air – and was now dancing happily towards us. "Well, there's one person you won't be accountable for." Kairi was kneeling, crumpled on the floor like a rag doll and she was sobbing. It didn't really make a difference to me what she was sobbing about; one way or another she had a hand in Cloud's pain. And Riku's too. Can't forget about Riku… Eheh.

"Cloud, are you alright? I, the Great Ninja Yuffie, caught Kairi before she could get away. With everyone else's help, of course." Though, she rolled her eyes when she mentioned everyone else. She was grinning happily and twirling her giant Ninja Star about.

Cloud nodded and said, "I'm sure you did most of the work, right Yuffie?"

She nodded and laughed. Cid had come over at this point and was examining both of us. "I think both of you should sit down. For now, at least. Until Tidus and Sora come back with Riku." Without even allowing time for Cloud to say something, even if he wasn't going to say anything, I slid him down off my arm and to the floor where he sat there and looked between all of us: from me to Yuffie, to Cid, to Kairi, and then off into space. Cid leaned towards me and whispered, none too softly, "What happened to him?"

"A lot happened to me," Cloud said. Cid dropped the conversation, looking at Cloud warily after his nearly emotionless response. Well, maybe not response since the question had been directed at me, but the point is made.

In an effort to direct attention away from the currently volatile Cloud I said, "How long have Sora and Tidus been gone?" They should have been back by now. I had probably been gone long enough what with fighting with the silver haired man and then dragging Cloud and myself back here. What was taking them so long?

Cid shrugged and said, "About as long as you. They should be back soon." And then the door eased open behind us. "Well, speak of the devil," Cid said enthusiastically. Riku was leaning on Sora and Tidus looked frustrated.

"Sora wouldn't let me help at all," Tidus said irritably to no one in particular. I couldn't blame Sora for not wanting anyone to help him; I would have refused anyone's help with Cloud. Unless of course, I was small like Sora and Cloud weighed twice my weight and I was about to drop dead on the floor because of that. Then I might have asked for help. Sora was sweating in an effort to keep an unconscious Riku on his shoulder until they both finally slumped to the floor.

Cid was roaring at Sora about not letting Tidus help them, while Tidus tried to look imposing behind Cid. Yes, he only tried. He never really got to the…imposing stage. Sora didn't seem to be listening as Cid ranted; he just sat there with Riku's head on his shoulder and his fingers touching Riku's cheek. I touched Cloud's head before striding towards the group. "Cid, leave him alone." It took Cid a minute to be compliant, but he finally stopped yelling and recrossed his arms over his chest while leaning backwards slightly and grumbling. "Was he sleeping when you found him?" I knew he was sleeping and not dead because his chest was moving. Sora sniffed and looked up at me.

"You…you mean he's not dead?" Ooooookay. Someone needed to learn a little more about human anatomy. I mean, I knew Sora was…special, but I didn't think that much so.

Tidus sighed theatrically and said irritably, "I _told_ you he wasn't dead, Sora." Tidus turned around and walked over to Yuffie and Kairi.

Sora sniffled and I saw tears welling up in his big brown eyes. Oh great, here we go. "Yes, this is how we found him." Sora got himself under control and I looked Riku over. He seemed to have fared better than Cloud. There was a lot of bruising on him and his clothes were ripped up, but there wasn't much blood. Not nearly as much as was on Cloud. "He'll be okay?" I nodded and stood up. Hell, he was probably alright now as long as there was nothing wrong internally. Riku was probably just knocked out. Sora held him tighter to his chest and leaned his face on the top of Riku's head. Then Cid, Yuffie and Tidus convened around him and Cid was giving out orders again.

"Tidus, you help Sora with Riku." Sora's head snapped up and he opened his mouth to argue, but he then closed his mouth after Cid gave the younger boy a look. Sora looked at Cid sullenly as Cid continued. "Yuffie, you take Kairi. And I will take Cloud."

"I'll help you." Cid glared at me like he had a Sora. But I found him no more intimidating than I found Sora. Which was zero. "He's heavy." I could feel Cloud scowling at me from behind as if he could somehow cause me to burst into flames. Testy now, weren't we? He really wasn't all that heavy, but I didn't want to leave Cloud all to Cid.

The older man gave an exasperated sigh and then said, "Right. Let's go then."

* * *

It hadn't taken us too long to make it back home. The warehouse wasn't that far into the forest; just a little farther in than where it started. Even so Cloud soon fell asleep and Riku stayed asleep, snoring softly. We were all silent for lack of wanting to talk. Kairi made pitiful, repressed sobbing noises every so often, but that was it.

Once home, we all set about doing what needed to be done. Yuffie took Kairi away to lock her into her room. Sora, Tidus and Cid took Riku to Cid's room to patch him up and I guess get him to wake up. I, of course, took Cloud to his room…with Cid's help.

I stared at Cloud, laying on his bed and sleeping soundly. He didn't look like he'd be waking up anytime soon so I went and collected all the bandages and antiseptic and other medical junk. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I tenderly brushed some of his blond hair off of his forehead and ran my finger along the half healed gouge line under his jaw. Damn Kairi. I was wondering whether I should do this with him asleep or wake him up when his breathing suddenly caught in his throat and his eyes flashed open. Cloud sat bolt upright, one hand balled into a fist, until he saw me. He relaxed and said, "Oh. Squall." His mouth twitched into a smile as he looked around to get his bearings. "Home sweet home. Where's everyone else?"

"Doing what they need to do." He tried to swing his legs over the side of the bed and get up, but I pushed him back down to a sitting position. "And you need to stay here so I can fix you, again." I mock rolled my eyes and he laughed.

"As if I haven't had to fix you before. Besides, I'm hungry." He tried to get up again and when I pushed him back down he snarled at me.

I grabbed his face, avoiding the side of his jaw that was injured and swiftly kissed him. "Stop. Let me take care of you first, and then you can eat." He gave me a resigned glare but sat back on the headrest. I tugged off his shirt and his pants, leaving his wolfie boxers on. Cloud winced as the fabric scrapped against his injured skin. His injuries were…extensive. Another gouge was ripped through his chest, crossing perpendicularly to the one I had made earlier. Others were cut into his sides and traveled across his back. There were some on his legs, including a particularly deep one in his right thigh. Which explained the limping. Cloud's wrists were all torn up as if someone had run them through a blender. His shoulder was still seeping blood a bit and his side looked as though it had been stabbed.

"Damn."

Cloud laughed mirthlessly. "Yeah, damn is right. That stupid bitch, she did some sadistic stuff. And Sephiroth…" He released a defeated sigh.

I poured a good amount of antiseptic onto a washcloth and held it to the wound in his side. It looked like it was turning a funky color, so I figured that was as good as anywhere to start. Cloud winced and I said, "Is that who the silver haired guy was?" Cloud nodded and I pressed more antiseptic into the wound. After a few moments, I went to work on another one with a clean washcloth. You know, in case the other one had been infected. "So what happened to you there?"

Cloud looked away and out the window and at first I didn't think he would answer me. But then he started to talk to me. "Well, at first I thought I was just there with Kairi. Which, bad as it was, I could live with that. All this," he gestured at his body. "Wasn't so bad as long as I thought about you guys coming to get me." I raised and eyebrow and he rolled his eyes, saying, "I'm not saying it didn't _hurt_. Cause it hurt like hell. I'm just saying that I was able to hang onto some kind of hope that she wouldn't hang on to me." He looked back towards me as he paused.

"But, when I found out that he was there… He was the one who had kidnapped me out of the alleyway. And I guess that's how Kairi got a hold of Riku as well. We knew someone had to have been working with her. But never…in my wildest dreams, did I think he would have come back." Cloud paused again and I pushed him forward so I could look at his back. "Anyway, he told me some bullshit about being able to come back to life," I looked at him questioningly, but he didn't notice as he'd averted his eyes towards his feet at the end of the bed. "And how, he'd been thinking about me for all that time and how he realized he…wanted me."

I touched Cloud's face and said softly, "It's okay. I know this part already."

Cloud wiped at his eyes violently and said roughly, "No, I need to say it." He breathed deeply for a moment as I reached for the bandages to wrap him up again. "Sephiroth raped me, again and again. Sometimes he fed me, and sometimes I was able to fall asleep. But it was so horrible. I was in my worst nightmare and there was nothing I could do to stop it." He bared his teeth and I started to clean his leg. "That stupid bastard. I wanted him to just be dead and never come back. But he can come back." Cloud scowled and then closed his eyes.

"As long as I'm here, I won't let anything like that happen again." Cloud looked up at me as I wrapped a bandage around his leg. "I'm yours Cloud, and you're mine." A fleeting smile graced my lips before it melted back into my still face as I wiped his jaw with the cloth. No bandages there. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to eat.

Cloud's smiled back at me, before growing thoughtful. "Are you done now?" I nodded and he said, "Okay let's go get some food."

* * *

Laying there with Cloud in my arms again was a wonderful thing. And for once, we had clothing on. Eheh. My eyes traveled down his bandaged body and I felt anger welling up inside my chest for what Kairi and Sephiroth had done to him. All because Kairi was gone off the deep end. Disentangling my arms from around him, I rolled out of bed with a grunt and stretched. I rubbed my injured shoulder which Cloud had cleaned up before we left for food. He had insisted on doing it himself. The wound kind of hurt, but not incapacitatingly so. Getting dressed, I decided to go and see how everyone else was doing. I hadn't seen anyone but Cloud since we'd all split up yesterday and I didn't want to miss anything important.

As I opened the door, I heard Cloud's muffled voice say, "Where ya going?" I turned around but he was facing away from me and still looked like was asleep.

"To go and talk to the others." I heard his muffled acknowledgement and what sounded like him allowing me to go. As if he had the ability the stop me now.

I made my way down to the mess hall for food and saw Cid and Yuffie sitting and talking. Getting my food, I quickly joined them. "Leon," Cid said as his way of greeting. Yuffie grinned and called me "Squall" which I ignored. "How's Cloud holding up?" Cid's question, to which I shrugged my shoulders and nodded. "well, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, considering he's only been back for not even a whole day, he's doing pretty fine." I wasn't about to launch into why he was doing fine, or about our talk yesterday. If that was what Cid had been looking for, he was going to be disappointed. "Anyway, was Riku alright?" I figured he was, but, I asked anyway. No harm could come from asking.

Cid stuffed some eggs in his mouth and it took a few moments for him to answer. In which time Yuffie said, "I hope you two actually slept last night. Cloud probably needed the sleep and…"

"Yuffie, please," Cid said. Turning to me he said, "Riku's fine. In a lot better shape than Cloud was. But I think she hated Cloud more than she hated Riku anyway, so." Cid didn't know anything about what Sephiroth had done to Cloud, but I wasn't about to enlighten him. There wasn't any need to cause undue anger or harm or anything like that. "I still don't know what I'm going to do with Kairi though." He scowled.

"Maybe you should just exile her or something." Cid looked thoughtful, and nodded, making a thoughtful face. Or, at least as thoughtful as was possible for Cid.

Yuffie scowled and said, "Well, what is she comes back?"

"I don't she'd ever think of coming back," Cid murmured. "Everyone hates her," he stated in his usual coarse manner. "And the little brat finally realizes that." Yuffie nodded and shrugged, seeming to agree. "In the next couple of days," Cid continued, "I think we'll set everything up. Decide where she has to go and all that garbage." He looked from me to Yuffie. "Fine?" I nodded and Yuffie did so also.

With that settled, we split up. I grabbed some breakfast to bring back to the room because Cloud would undoubtedly be hungry. Unless he was asleep. Either one was fine with me because he needed both. Even though he had only been gone three days, he was pretty thin, thanks in part to his ravenous appetite. Opening the door to his – or, our – room, I saw he was apparently up: the bed was empty. "Cloud, I have food!"

I was a bit surprised, I admit, when he didn't instantly come running to scoff down whatever I had brought up for him. But then he grabbed me around the waist from behind and I felt him lean his head into my back. "I missed you, what did you talk about, and where is the food?"

I put the tray of food on the table and said, "Sure seems like you missed me. The food is on the table." He drew his arms from around my waist and walked to the table. He eyed the food and then stood before me, an eyebrow raised.

"You doubt me?" Cloud grabbed my chin and pulled my face down to meet his. Closing my eyes, I lost myself in the feel of him, something I hadn't experienced in all too long. He stepped forward and pushed me into the door, effectively closing it and pushing me against the wall in the same motion. His hands on my hips, my hands went to hold his face as his tongue slipped into my mouth to caress my tongue. He pressed his boxer clad hips into mine as he nipped at my lip and gripped my hips tighter in his hands. Pushing back with my tongue to delve into his mouth, I pressed back with my hips, feeling his arousal and getting more aroused myself by the minute. He pulled away, a devious look tainting his features as he said, "Still think I didn't miss you?"

I looked over his head, before locking his blue eyes with my brown ones. "I'm not completely sure I'm convinced yet."

"Oh, so now you want me to choose between you and food? How could you?" He turned around with a huff, crossing his arms. I reached out to grab his shoulder, but he moved away, just out of reach. For a moment, I wondered if he was really mad. But as I reached for him again, I caught a look at his face, and I saw a sly smile. So, where was he going with this then? I had ideas, but did he have the same ones?

Grabbing for him again, I expected him to just move away like he had been doing. But this time, he moved into me and pushed me. And I landed…not on the floor. The bed was under me and suddenly Cloud was sitting next to me, smiling like a gleeful kid. Albeit, a very impish one. "So now that you've got me here, what's your master plan?"

Cloud shrugged and said, "Take your clothes off and ravish you?" I made a thoughtful face, and shrugged,

"If you think you can. But it sounds like a good idea to me." Cloud reached down for my shirt, but I grabbed his arm and flipped him over. He winced and tried to hide it, but I instantly released his arm anyway. "Maybe we should wait," I said, sitting up.

Cloud glowered and growled. "No, I'll be fine." He touched my face, but I shook my head and pulled away.

He sighed and sat up as though giving in, but I guess I should have known better. He swung his uninjured leg around and pushed me to the bed with it, before sitting on stomach. "I told you, I'll be fine." He poked me in the chest. "You worry too much."

He was such an ass sometimes. "Fine, but if you start bleeding or anything, I'm putting you to sleep." He rolled his eyes, but conceded.

"Fiiiiiine." Still sitting on my stomach, he unbuttoned my pants, and pushed them as far down as was possible in his position. I did the rest of the work by kicking them off while he pulled my jacket and my shirt off. Then we pretty much picked up where we left off. He laid on top of me, kissing me passionately, while I returned it myself. My fingers tugged at the hem of his boxers as his teeth grazed my neck, his warm breath making the hairs stand on end.

Tossing his boxers somewhere around the room, I rolled him over, careful not to hurt him. Damn him. His hands went to my hips and my boxers as my hand slid down from his face over his bare chest and stomach, causing the muscles to tighten. Cloud managed to push down my boxers and he moaned in surprise as I took his manhood in my hand. I leaned down and kissed his chest as I moved my hand. His eyes were closed, and his mouth half open, his breathing quickened as I sped up. Cloud moaned as his hips arched up off the bed. "Squall…" I covered his mouth with mine, touching my tongue to his as he moaned into my mouth, his arousal heightening my own. Cloud's breath caught in his throat as he orgasmed, his muscles tightening in sweet tension and pleasure. His body shuddered with receding waves of pleasure and I wrapped my arms around him, cradling him to my chest. We sat there for a moment as Cloud regained a normal pace of breathing, a light sheen of sweat covering his body.

The blonde squirmed out of my grasp and pushed me onto the bed, leaning over me, his lips glided over mine. "Time to return the favor." He grinned roguishly as he grabbed me this time. The sensation of being at the hand of my lover, tingling through my body was amazing. It was as if I was flying up above the clouds somewhere in a land of pleasure where nothing could go wrong. Sure, not exactly poetic, but there wasn't really anyone way to describe it. Leaning my head back into the pillows and the headboard, I sighed heavily as Cloud increased the tempo of his hand.

"Mmmm." Cloud leaned down and licked the sweat off of my neck, leaving a line of tingling sensations along that spot. I groaned as I orgasmed and Cloud collapsed next to me, pressed up against my side, eyes closed with a content smile on his face. "See, I told you," he murmured.

I ruffled his hair and said, "It's not my fault if I care about you. It's your fault if anything."

He shook his head and opened his eyes to lock me with those gorgeous baby blues. "It is your fault. You didn't start off gay."

I pushed his head off my arm and said, "You didn't really give me a choice in the matter. I'd bet that you would still be chasing me now if I hadn't given in. You couldn't resist yourself, and I couldn't do anything about it." Cloud grinned and shrugged.

"That's more your problem than mine, though." I rolled my eyes and he kissed me roughly.

"Ready for round two?"

* * *

Yay! Not so bad, eh? My first one. –covers face- I actually didn't burst into flames writing it. lol. Alright. I'm off. 


	10. Chapter 10

Alright, last chapter. But don't cry. I have a surprise for you at the end.

* * *

It had taken almost two weeks, but I was finally feeling up to regular standards again. Most of my wounds had healed into scars. Some had healed completely, and the stab wounds were still lingering. But, that was my physical state. Not really as issue anymore. My mental state, well, that was something else entirely. I had frequent nightmares all about the same thing, or the same person actually. It's not too hard to figure out who that person is. Squall was concerned and understanding. But I, on the other hand, was frustrated with the whole thing. I just wanted to be rid of the whole experience. What I needed was something to distract myself and now that I was pretty much healed, I would be able to hopefully find something to distract myself.

Squall was off finishing up the final plans for Kairi's exile. I wasn't sure if I should be happy that the stupid bitch would finally be gone, or angry that even now she was separating me from Squall. Either way, I was on my own in finding something to do. But, really, how hard could that be?

Actually, it was pretty damn hard. Yuffie was working, as was Tidus. And Sora was continually doting over Riku and wouldn't let anyone near him. I wanted to beat Sora over the head with the Buster sword. Riku wasn't that hurt.

Anyway, I had to relegate myself to wandering through the forest. But, I wandered through the forest on the opposite side of town, far away from the abandoned warehouse. Since I was far away from the warehouse, the walk was actually sort of relaxing in a boring kind of way. I was, however, able to think about a lot of things on my boring walk.

Like turning Squall.

He hadn't said anything regarding it, but he sure as well hadn't forgotten it, stupid persistent bastard that he was. I could see him pouncing on me, sometime soon, and asking me about this. But, did I have an answer for him? No, not really. As much as he said he'd go through hell for me, I still didn't think he knows what it's really like to go through this kind of hell. I'd explained the best I could, and as gorily as I could, to deter him from wanting this. But, he was determined.

As I had been walking and thinking, there had been the constant noise of a stream over to my right. But now, the sound of running water was punctured by voices. Listening, I recognized Sora's and Riku's voices and wondered what the hell they were doing out here. Feeling like stirring up trouble, I ran stealthily through the bushes and trees. With their human hearing they wouldn't know I was there until I wanted them to know I was there.

Approaching from behind, I saw Riku and Sora with their shirts off and in the water. Alright, so, maybe a bit more…pure than me and Squall would have been, but I did still wonder where this little outing of theirs may have gone if I hadn't shown up. As if I would just leave them to enjoy themselves and go back to my incredibly boring day? Thinking about matters that I didn't want to think about?

I doubt it.

I stumbled – purposely – noisily out of where I had been hiding. And even then, it wasn't until I said, "Hey Sora, Riku," that they even noticed my existence. I'd expect that from Sora, but Riku… I guess love does crazy things like that to you. Not to me though.

And then Sora slipped and fell into the water. I suppressed a laugh as the younger boy came up, sputtering water, his brown hair looking like a wet mop on his head as it covered his eyes. "Hey Cloud. What're you doing here?" Riku turned to look at me, his arms hanging loosely at his sides, his silver eyes penetrating.

"Just, wandering around. Looking for something to do." I shrugged. It was, after all the truth. "And then I found you guys. I didn't know Sora was letting you out of the house." I smirked and Riku's face reddened.

Sora stood up, pushing his wet hair out of his eyes. I was not confining him anywhere, I was just taking care of him."

"In more ways than one," Riku chuckled. Sora gasped at Riku, who merely smiled at the younger boy. I, in the meantime, was wondering what exactly Riku meant by that. Open kind of person wasn't he?

Sora pushed Riku but again slipped and fell in the water. "You're not very good at this, are you Sora?" I said mockingly as Riku hauled a flailing Sora up out of the water. From what I could see, Riku was all healed except for a yellowed bruise on his back. Damn, he'd gotten off easy.

Riku easily tossed Sora onto the grass and looked at me. "Want to join us?"

I cocked an eyebrow. "Join you in what?" My tone was slightly suggestive, and Riku rolled his eyes. "Ooooh," I continued, connecting my head and hand together. "You meant join you in the water. Silly me." Sora stuck his tongue out at me.

"As if Riku would want your bony ass."

"What a mouth you have." Sora smiled sheepishly. "I can't anyway. Bandages," I pointed to the shoulder obscured by my black shirt. I sat on a big, mossy boulder next to the river. Leaning back, I soaked in the sun as Sora shook his head like a dog.

"I'm gonna go get food," he said. "You guys want anything?" Riku and I shook our heads, and Sora gave Riku a quick kiss before running off through the woods.

Well now, this was going nowhere.

"What have you been doing?" Riku was sitting on the bank, staring off into the trees as if something interesting was happening over there. Or maybe he was just thinking.

I shrugged, even though he couldn't see it. "Nothing really, just thinking."

"About?" He turned to look at me now. "Squall?" I nodded. "What about him? Does he want you to turn him?"

Woah, that was completely out of left field. How did this mopey kid know about me being a werewolf? Had someone told him? Or was he just that smart?

Riku must have seen the look I gave him, because he laughed and said, "Oh come on, it's not that hard to figure out. Squall comes back all angry from the day at the beach, and then flips out and refuses to talk to you or even see you. That same night, someone decides to go howling his damn head off. Not to mention, you haven't been too stealthy in your little escapes." He gave me a smug look which I greatly desired to punch off of his face. Cocky little brat.

I decided to go for indifference on this one. "It's not like everyone saw me. And besides, who would believe them?" I paused and Riku made a face as if to say, All well. "Besides, why would you think Squall would want me to turn him?"

"As if this wasn't obvious as well, Cloud. He loves you, and wants to be with you in everyway possible, though he won't say it in so many words. And besides, why should he have to sit around in normalcy while you get to run and be a little wolfie?"

The term "little wolfie" was annoying, considering a "little wolfie" could disembowel him in one shot, but fine, I'll play nice.

"Because I don't think he knows what he's getting himself into. I've explained to him what happens, and how terrible it is. But, he still wants to do it." I frowned. "And besides, it's not like him being normal makes him any different to me."

Riku stood up, his arms crossed over his chest. "It may not make a difference to you, but it makes a difference to him." I opened my mouth to say something, but he kept talking. "Not in the way in loves you, but in the way you connect. And besides wouldn't you do the same thing for him no matter what the cost?"

All right, he had me there. I would go through it all again for him. Even so, I tried to think of a way to weasel out of this. Riku smirked knowingly at me. Glaring, I stood up and rolled my sore shoulder.

"Just do it, Cloud."

I stared hard at Riku before saying, "Fine. But, we have to spar once I'm better. So I can get you back for that wolfie comment."

Riku laughed, and said, "Anytime, anywhere, wolfie."

**POV**

* * *

"So that settles it," Cid said, slamming his fist on the table and making everything on it jump and clatter. His tea spilt out of the cup, and he ignored it. Probably because it was on Cloud's table and not his.

I frowned and Cid and said, "Was that really necessary?" Cid gave me a look as if to say, "Is breathing air necessary?" I sighed and stood up, stretching out my back. "So we get rid of her tomorrow then?" Cid nodded. "Where is she anyway?"

Cid waved a dismissive hand. "Yuffie put her somewhere. And you know Yuffie. She hides something, or someone, and they'll stay hidden." He laughed and continued. "Anyway, how's Cloud doing?"

He stood and moved towards the door. I guessed we were going to walk and talk, so I stepped out of the room, Cid following right behind and then walking abreast of me as we went down the hall. "He's doing all right. Has a lot of nightmares though." I let Cid lead the way, thinking maybe he had somewhere specific that he wanted to go to. The old man probably had no specific destination in mind, but that was fine with me, because I had no destination in mind either. Except maybe to see Cloud, but I didn't know where he was at the moment. And more likely than not, Cloud would find me before I could find him.

"I can understand that," Cid murmured, thinking. He didn't now anything about Sephiroth and Cloud, but I think he guessed that something more happened than just the physical stuff Kairi had done to him. "Just makes me wonder, what the hell she did to him to give him nightmares."

I could tell that he was trying to get me to tell him something, anything about what happened to Cloud. As much as I would have liked to enlighten Cid, I felt it was more Cloud's place to do so. It was, after all, Cloud's traumatized experience. "You should ask Cloud about it," I suggested. It had been two weeks since everything had happened, but no one but me had asked Cloud what happened.

Cid shrugged. "Yeah, probably."

* * *

At dinner that night, Cid decided to ask Cloud. Of all the freaking places he could have asked, and the stupid old man decides to ask at dinner with everyone else around.

"Nothing," Cloud said, instantly becoming withdrawn. I glared at Cid who looked baffled by Cloud's reaction. Looking over at Cloud, I saw him poking at his food like he wasn't hungry anymore. Which I knew wasn't true since he had been complaining about how hungry he was on the way here, and he'd only had one serving. I touched his hand and he looked at me, his blue eyes pained. "Come on," I squeezed his shoulder and he got up to follow me. No one followed us, which was good for them. Anyone stupid enough to bother Cloud now would have been in a great amount of pain caused by me. Back at his room, he sat at the table with a huge sigh. "I'm still hungry," he muttered.

Seating myself on the other side of him, I said, "I guessed so much. We'll go get more food later." Leaning back in my seat and titling the legs of the floor, I crossed my arms over my chest. "You know he's only asking because he's worried about you." Cloud nodded but didn't reply. "If you'd rather me tell him I will."

Cloud sat there, his head tilted downwards, eyes focused on the table. "No, I really should." He stood up and continued, "I'll go tell him now. No point in postponing it any longer, right?" He grinned mirthlessly and I stood up as well, drawing him to my chest.

"You'll be fine. Come on." He grabbed my hand and dragged me out the door. Yes, he dragged me out the door. I guess to make him feel more in control of what was going on. Not that I cared. I'd go anywhere with him.

We found Cid in his room and when he opened the door, he looked surprised. "What're you doin' here now?" Despite the question, he stepped aside and we entered his room. Cid sat down, some weird black liquid in a cup. I hoped it was just some really strong, black coffee. Cloud stood, and I stood behind him, a hand on his lower back.

"Cid, I…I wanted to tell you what happened."

Cid paused in the chewing of his straw to look at Cloud questioningly. "Only if you want to."

Cloud nodded. "I want to." He paused to take a deep breath and began. "While I was there, I thought it was just Kairi, but…Sephiroth was there too." Cid's mouth dropped open and he jumped up.

"What!" His jumping up and consequent roar had knocked the cup of black stuff over, and now it was spreading across the table. "You mean the demon bastard is back? Where is he?"

Cloud grinned slightly and said, "I killed."

"Oh," Cid said, all the energy leaving him like he was a deflating balloon. "What about him then?"

The grin fading from Cloud's face he started, "Well, he came and started talking about all this bullshit about how he was able to come back to life and everything, and how he'd been thinking about all the things he'd done." Cid snorted a haughty "as if" laugh. "He told me that he…wanted me." Cid looked at him, uncomprehending. "Sephiroth…raped me Cid." The old man's jaw dropped open again.

"Holy…" He looked from Cloud to me and back to Cloud. Standing up he said, "Cloud, I'm…I don't know what to say. That…" Cid started to string curses together in ways that I had never heard of. I don't think some of the words weren't real either, but apparently Cid couldn't come up with any words in the English language to describe what he was feeling. Cloud leaned against me with a sigh, waiting for Cid to complete his verbal escapade of cursing. "I hope you made that bastard suffer."

Cloud grinned. "He suffered, I think. I'd rather him not come back at all though, even for us to make him suffer more." Cid nodded and sat down again. I didn't think there would be anymore revelations revealed so, perhaps he wouldn't have to stand up again in shock and knock anything else over. The fact that the black coffee stuff was all over his table didn't seem to bother him in the least. So it was just other people's houses that he made dirty.

"We'll be exiling Kairi tomorrow. Are you coming?"

Cloud looked incredulously at Cid. "Of course, I want to see her sorry ass exiled. After everything that happened."

Cid grinned. "All right then."

* * *

Kairi's exile was a pretty big deal for all of us, in one way or another. Cloud and Riku were most definitely the happiest to see her go, followed by the rest of us. We'd given her some food and other necessities, but I felt that even that was being generous after everything that she had done.

There were no good byes, not even a couple of words exchanged. Yuffie merely brought Kairi out to the edge of town where we were all waiting, and stuck her on the road. She looked at us forlornly and Cid scowled at her as he said, "Don't' come back Kairi. Ever. You're not welcome here anymore."

I had a few choice words of death I would have liked to say to her, but after Cid had finished Kairi tearfully fled down the road. Hah, stupid Kairi.

And then we broke apart. Sora and Riku went off on their own somewhere, and Cid and Tidus walked off, talking about weapons. Yuffie smiled at Cloud, subdued for once. "You guys are lucky. Not that I'm jealous." She tossed her head back with a laugh, the normal Yuffie returning. "I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie." She jumped at Cloud, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. "I'll see you guys later, at dinner."

We watched as she ran off down the street, pulling her giant Ninja star off of her back. I turned to Cloud. "Walk with me." I started to head off towards the forest, but not before I caught a look of apprehension on his face. He knew where I was going with this, but I wanted to wait until we were out of town to talk to him. Couldn't have everyone in town knowing about werewolves and such. Cloud and I walked for a little while, in a silence that was calming for me, but I'm sure he was just getting jitterier by the moment.

"Squall, just _ask_ already." Cloud glared at me, his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"So you can tell me "no"?" Cloud opened his mouth to argue but shut it, staring straight ahead. His jaw was working as he thought. "Sit," I commanded as I sat myself on a fallen log. Cloud stood, looking like he was going to put up a fight about me telling him to sit. But then he sat down with a growl, looking straight ahead. "Look, I know you don't really want to, but think about it from my point of view, just for a minute. I want to be able to share everything with you, do everything with you." Cloud turned to look at me, his incredulous look causing me to frown slightly. "With us, separated like this… It doesn't look like a lot on the outside, but to me it is. And I just want that extra bond with you."

There, so, the most words I'd probably ever stringed together in several sentences for someone and then, what does he do? He laughs. I sat there for a moment, staring at him in disbelief before bringing my arm back to punch him. Injured or not, he wasn't going to laugh at me and get away with it.

Cloud ducked and stopped my flying arm before it reached him, and he suddenly grew serious. "I'm sorry, Squall, it's just that… I was talking to Riku about this, just yesterday. And he said the same exact thing. The same damn thing." He shook his head, and I shook my mine, not quite believing him. That silver haired mope had been able to figure me out? Maybe he was smarter than he looked. "And, I wasn't going to change you, even though I understood Riku's point and all, because, I didn't know if that was how you really felt. But now, you said it." Cloud grabbed my face and kissed me. "And yes, I'll do it. Because of everything, because of you. Because I love you."

I gave Cloud a smile, yes, a real smile. Not a small one, not a fleeting one, but a smile. He smiled back at me and brought his face to mine. Cloud pushed me off the log and to the soft ground, running his hands up my sides he said, "I hope you're ready for this. It's gonna be one wild ride."

I raised an eyebrow. "Cloud, I will be ready for anything you could every possibly send me way." He grinned at me and dipped his head, running his tongue along my neck making the flesh tingle.

And then his teeth traveled over my neck, pressing slowly into the flesh.

* * *

I really hoped you guys liked this fanfic. My first ever. I sure as hell enjoyed writing it. But now, my surprise.

I've decided to write a sequel. Which, I will be starting on after I finish another one-shot I want to start, and I'm also starting another CloudSquall fanfic. Got a lot to do. XD But loving it.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Great to know what you guys think. Once666, Amarant Rose Coral, …, airatainted, OfPiratesAndElves, yllom21, -insert amusing name here-, Darkness-heart, scqwsx, HevenlyAnimeAngel-Amaterasu, FruchiSeka, AlchemistBlaze, AXENATOR, and Bob The Builder ;D

Well, I'm off to work on my stories. Woooooo!


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